Simon Roberts (photographer)

Simon Roberts (born 5 February 1974) is a British photographer whose work has been exhibited and published internationally.

Life and work

Roberts studied a BA Hons in Human Geography at the University of Sheffield (1996).^[1] He currently lives in Brighton, England.^[2]

Between July 2004 and August 2005 Roberts travelled throughout Russia,^[3] taking in 65 destinations from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok.^[4] This resulted in the book and exhibition Motherland and the exhibition Polyarnye Nochi.

Between August 2007 and September 2008 Roberts travelled throughout England in a motor home using a large format camera capturing people at play, and exploring the relationship between people and the places they visit. This resulted in the book and exhibition We English.^[5][6] In 'The Observer Critics' Review of 2011' Sean O'Hagan included the We English exhibition at Flowers East in London in his top 10 photography exhibitions of the year.^[7] Parr and Badger include the book We English in the third volume of their photobook history.^[8]

Roberts was commissioned by the UK parliament Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art as the official Election Artist to document campaigning activity around the country in the run-up to the 2010 General Election.^[9] Roberts travelled the country, again in a motor home, using an old plate camera to photograph from the elevated position of its roof.^[10] This resulted in The Election Project touring exhibition and The Election Project Newspaper publication (which was made available free to download in 2012).

Roberts has also made other series of work: Russian Army (2004–2008), Ramzan Kadyrov (2006), Russian Portraits (2004–2008) (some of which appear in Motherland), Liverpool Landscapes (2009), British Olympians, Polyarnye Nochi (translation: polar nights), City Councils (2011),^[11] Landscapes Innocence & Experience (2011), Star Chambers (2011), Credit Crunch Lexicon (2011–2012), Let This Be a Sign (2011–2012),^[12] Pierdom (2011–2012),^[13] The Last Moment (2011–2012) and XXX Olympiad (2012).

Publications

Publications by Roberts

• Motherland. London: Chris Boot, 2007. ISBN 978-1-905712-03-8.^{[n 1]}
• We English. London: Chris Boot, 2009. ISBN 978-1-905712-14-4.^{[n 2]}
• The Election Project Newspaper. 32-page Berliner format. Self-published.^{[n 3]}
  • First edition, 2010. Edition of 3000 copies.
  • Second edition, 2013. Edition of 2000 copies.
• This Is a Sign. Self-published, 2012. 32-page, Edition of 2000 copies.^{[14][n 4]}
• Pierdom. Stockport: Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2013. ISBN 978-1-907893-40-7.^[13]
• Credit Crunch Postcards. According to Roberts's website, "A pack of original postcards featuring different extracts of text from Simon's Credit Crunch Lexicon, launched to coincide with the exhibition 'Show Me The Money: The Image of Finance 1700 to the present' at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art."
• Landscapes of Innocence & Experience. Eton: Verey Gallery, 2014. Features work from various series including We English, The Election Project, XXX Olympiad and Pierdom. With an essay by Martin Caiger-Smith, "Settlement". Catalogue for an exhibition, "Landscapes of Innocence and Experience", held at the Verey Gallery, Eton College, UK, January–April 2015.
• Boxing Boys: Britain 1997—1999. Southport: Café Royal, 2015. Edition of 200 copies.

Publications with contributions by Roberts

• Generation ’74. Kaunas, Lithuania: Kaunas Photo festival, 2015. ISBN 978-609-8032-10-9. Edited by Ángel Luis González and Irina Chmyreva. Includes profiles of and interview transcripts with eleven European photographers born in 1974: Simon Roberts, Nick Hannes, Kirill Golovchenko, Przemyslaw Pokrycki, Tomáš Pospěch, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, Vitus Saloshanka, Gintaras Česonis, Borut Peterlin, Pekka Niittyvirta and Davide Monteleone. Edition of 500 copies.

Exhibitions

• This Land Is Your Land, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, 2008.^[15]
• Unseen, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, 2008.^[16]
• Motherland, Belfast Exposed, N. Ireland, 2008.
• Visions of Our Time, Deutsche Börse Art Collection, Berlin, 2009.
• Polyarnye Nochi, Crane Kalman, Brighton, UK, 2010.^[17]
• Motherland/Homeland, EX3 Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Firenze, 2010.
• The Election Project, House of Commons, London, 2010.
• We English, National Media Museum, Bradford, UK, 2010.
• We English, Klompching Gallery, New York, 2010.^[18]
• We English, Robert Morat Galerie, Hamburg, 2010, 2011.^[19]
• We English & The Election Project, mac Gallery, Birmingham, UK, 2011.
• Motherland, Robert Morat Galerie, Hamburg, 2011.^[19]
• We English, Light House gallery, Wolverhampton, UK, 2012.
• We English, Pluie d’Images Festival, Brest, France, 2012.
• Let This Be a Sign, Swiss Cottage Gallery, London, 2012.^[12][20]
• Pierdom, Flowers Gallery, London, 2013.^[21]
• Pierdom, Klompching Gallery, New York, 2013.^[22]
• Pierdom, Robert Morat Galerie, Hamburg.^[19][23]
• Polyarnye Nochi, Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK, 2014.^[24]
• Landscape Studies of a Small Island, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, 2014. Includes work from Motherland, We English, The Election Project, Pierdom and other series.^[25] Curated by Karen McQuaid from The Photographers' Gallery, London. Part of the Britain in Focus theme of Photobiennale 2014, the UK-Russia Year of Culture.

Awards

• 1998: Ian Parry Scholarship for young photographers^[26]
• 2007: Royal Photographic Society's Vic Odden Award^[27]
• 2010: Third prize, World Press Photo contest in the Daily Life - Stories category, for We English.^[28]
• 2013: Honorary Fellowship, Royal Photographic Society^[29]

Collections

Roberts's work is held in the following public collections:

• Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK.^[30]
• Birmingham Central Library, Birmingham, UK.^[31]
• Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Frankfurt, Germany.^[32]
• George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.
• Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL.^[33]
• National Media Museum, Bradford, UK.
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO.^[34]
• Wilson Centre for Photography, London.
• Parliamentary Art Collection, London.^[35]

Notes

1. ↑ Its website is motherlandbook.com.
2. ↑ Its website is we-english.co.uk.
3. ↑ Its website is theelectionproject.co.uk/blog/election-project-newspaper and simoncroberts.com/shop/election-project-newspaper/ where it was available to download.
4. ↑ Its web page is simoncroberts.com/shop/this-is-a-sign-newspaper/.

References

External links

• Official website
• Simon Roberts' blog about the making of his series We English
• List of photographic series by Simon Roberts at DMB Creatives
• The Election Project website
• Interview with Simon Roberts at The Online Photographer
• Video interview with Simon Roberts at Lens Culture
• Audio-visual slideshow interview with Simon Roberts at BBC News Online