Simon Roberts (born 5 February 1974) is a British

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

. His work deals with peoples' "relationship to landscape and notions of identity and belonging." Roberts' books include ''Motherland'' (2007), ''We English'' (2009), ''Pierdom'' (2013), and ''Merrie Albion'' (2017). His work has been exhibited internationally. The

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

has awarded him an Honorary Fellowship and its Vic Odden Award, and he was commissioned by the

UK parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art as the official 2010 British

Election Artist The Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art of the British House of Commons chooses an official Election Artist to document the election campaigns in the United Kingdom's general elections. In 2001 the official artist was Jonathan Yeo, with ...

Life and work

Roberts studied a BA Hons in Human Geography at the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

(1996). He currently lives in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, England. Between July 2004 and August 2005 Roberts travelled throughout Russia, taking in 65 destinations from

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...

. 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 Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame o ...

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''. In the "Observer critics' review of 2011"

Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan (born 1959) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and arranger who leads the avant-pop band the High Llamas, which he founded in 1992. He is also known for being one half of the songwriting duo (with Cathal Coughlan) in Microdisney and f ...

included the ''We English'' exhibition at Flowers East in London in his top 10 photography exhibitions of the year. Parr and

Badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united b ...

include the book ''We English'' in the third volume of their photobook history. Roberts was commissioned by the

Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art as the official

to document campaigning activity around the country in the run-up to the 2010 General Election. Roberts travelled the country, again in a

motor home A motorhome (or motor coach) is a type of self-propelled recreational vehicle (RV) which offers mobile living accommodation. Features Motorhomes usually have sleeping spaces for two to eight people. Each sleeping space is either fixed or conv ...

, using an old

plate camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

to photograph from the elevated position of its roof. 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: ''Polyarnye Nochi'' (polar nights), ''Star Chambers'' (2011), ''Landscapes of Innocence & Experience'' (2011), ''Credit Crunch Lexicon'' (2011–2012), ''Let This Be a Sign'' (2011–2012), ''Pierdom'' (2011–2012), ''The Last Moment'' (2011–2012) and ''XXX Olympiad'' (2012).

Publications

Publications by Roberts

*''Motherland''. London:

Chris Boot Chris Boot (born 27 May 1960) is a British photography curator, book publisher, and has worked in a variety of other roles related to photography. He was director of London’s Photo Co-op, director of the London and New York offices of Magnum Pho ...

, 2007. .Its website i
motherlandbook.com
*''We English''. London: Chris Boot, 2009. .Its website i
we-english.co.uk
*''Pierdom''. Stockport:

Dewi Lewis Dewi Lewis (born 10 March 1951) is a Welsh publisher and curator of photography. Career In 1975, Lewis was the founding director of the Bury Metropolitan Arts Association which operates the Met. Lewis also founded and was the first director of ...

, 2013. . *''Landscapes of Innocence & Experience.'' Eton: Verey Gallery, 2014. 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 held at the Verey Gallery,

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

, UK, 2015. *''Merrie Albion: Landscape Studies of a Small Island.'' Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2017. . With an introduction by David Chandler and texts by A. L. Kennedy, Alex Vasudevan,

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first ...

, David Matless,

Frank Cottrell-Boyce Frank Cottrell-Boyce (born 23 September 1959)"COTTRELL-BOYCE, Frank", ''Who's Who 2010'', A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009 ; online edn, Nov 200 Retrieved 2010-05-16. is an English people, English screenwriter, ...

Ian Jeffrey Ian Jeffrey is an English art historian, writer and curator. Jeffrey is the author of a series of illustrated books on the history of photography. He is a recipient of the Royal Photographic Society's J. Dudley Johnston Award. Life and work ...

Irenosen Okojie Irenosen Iseghohi Okojie FRSL is a Nigerian-born short story and novel writer working in London. Her stories incorporate speculative elements and also make use of her West African heritage. Her first novel, ''Butterfly Fish'' won a Betty Trask ...

Nikesh Shukla Nikesh Shukla (born 8 July 1980) is a British author and screenwriter. His writing focuses on race, racism, identity, and immigration. He is the editor of the 2016 collection of essays ''The Good Immigrant'', which features contributions from Ri ...

, and

Tristram Hunt Tristram Julian William Hunt, (born 31 May 1974) is a British historian, broadcast journalist and former politician who has been Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2017. He served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke ...

. *''Green Lungs of the City.'' Paris: Bessard, 2018. Edition of 250 copies.

Newspapers, zines and postcards by Roberts

*''The Election Project Newspaper''. Self-published. 32-page Berliner format newspaper.Its website i
theelectionproject.co.uk/blog/election-project-newspaper
an
simoncroberts.com/shop/election-project-newspaper/ where it was available to download
**First edition, 2010. Edition of 3000 copies. **Second edition, 2013. Edition of 2000 copies. *''This Is a Sign''. Self-published, 2012. 32-page newspaper. Edition of 2000 copies.Its web page i
simoncroberts.com/shop/this-is-a-sign-newspaper/
*''Credit Crunch Postcards.'' 2014. 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." *''Boxing Boys: Britain 1997–1999.'' Southport:

Café Royal A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...

, 2015. Edition of 200 copies. *''The Gray Friars of Canning Town.'' Southport: Café Royal, 2017. Edition of 150 copies.

Publications with contributions by Roberts

*''Generation ’74.'' Kaunas, Lithuania: Kaunas Photo festival, 2015. . 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 Davide Monteleone (born 1974) is an Italian photographer. He won World Press Photo awards in 2007, 2009, and 2011. Since 2019 Monteleone is a National Geographic Storytelling Fellow. Biography Monteleone was born in 1974. He studied engineering ...

. Edition of 500 copies. *''Unfamiliar Familiarities—Outside Views on Switzerland.'' Zürich: Lars Müller, 2017. Edited by Peter Pfrunder, Lars Willumeit, and Tatyana Franck. . A six-volume set: one volume by Roberts and the others by Alinka Echeverría, Shane Lavalette, Eva Leitolf, and Zhang Xiao, plus a text volume in English, German, and French. Published to accompany an exhibition at , Winterthur, Switzerland and

Musée de l'Élysée Musée de l'Élysée is a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, entirely devoted to photography. It is a government-supported institution founded in 1985 by Charles-Henri Favrod. It was housed in an 18th-century mansion until October 2020.

, Lausanne, Switzerland. *''The Great British Seaside: Photography from the 1960s to the Present.'' London:

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...

, 2018. . Published to accompany an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, London.

Notable exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*''The Election Project'',

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

, London, 2010. *''We English,''

National Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...

, Bradford, UK, 2010; Klompching Gallery, New York, 2010; Robert Morat Galerie, Hamburg, 2010–2011;Page about exhibitions by Roberts
Robert Morat Galerie. Accessed 19 January 2014.

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is a municipally-owned public museum and art gallery in the city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England. It is part of the "Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove". It is free for local residents ...

, Brighton and Hove, UK, 2011; mac, Birmingham, UK, 2011 (also with ''The Election Project''); Light House gallery, Wolverhampton, UK, 2012; Pluie d’Images Festival, Brest, France, 2012. *''Motherland'', Robert Morat Galerie, Hamburg, 2011. *''Let This Be a Sign'', Swiss Cottage Gallery, London, 2012. *''Pierdom'', Flowers Gallery, London, 2013; Klompching Gallery, New York, 2013; Robert Morat Galerie, Hamburg. * ''Sight Sacralization: (Re)framing Switzerland Part 1 & Part 2,''

Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art The is an art museum founded in 1989. It is in Hijiyama Park in Hiroshima, Japan. The building was designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa. Representative collections Access *Hiroden Hijiyama-shita Station See also *Hiroshima Museum of Art * ...

, Hiroshima, Japan, May–July 2018. Video.

Group exhibitions or exhibitions during festivals

*''Unseen'',

Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai The Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (MoCA Shanghai; ) is a contemporary art museum in the city of Shanghai, China. It is located within People's Park, north of People's Square, the location of a former racecourse that now holds the central ad ...

, Shanghai, China, 2008. With work by unrepresented Chinese photographers and Roberts,

Martin Kollar Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austr ...

and Julia Fullerton-Batte. *''This Land Is Your Land'',

Museum of Contemporary Photography The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) was founded in 1976 by Columbia College Chicago as the successor to the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography. The museum houses a permanent collection as well as the Midwest Photographers Project ...

, Chicago, IL, 2008. Work by Roberto Bellini, Peter Granser, Caroline Hake, Christian Jankowski, Simon Roberts, Greg Stimac, and Bryan Zanisnik. *''Motherland'', Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland, 2008. *''Visions of Our Time'', Deutsche Börse Art Collection, Berlin, 2009. *''Motherland/Homeland'', EX3 Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, Firenze, 2010. Alongside work by Francesco Carone. *''Landscape Studies of a Small Island'',

Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM; russian: link=no, Мультимедиа Арт Музей, Москва) is a Russian state museum dedicated to the presentation and development of contemporary art related to new multimedia technologies ...

, 2014. Includes work from ''Motherland'', ''We English'', ''The Election Project'', ''Pierdom'' and other series. Curated by Karen McQuaid from

The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established in ...

, London. Part of the ''Britain in Focus'' theme of Photobiennale 2014, the UK-Russia Year of Culture.

Awards

*1998:

Ian Parry Ian Parry (12 April 1965 – 28 December 1989) was a British photographer and photojournalist who worked as a freelance and on assignment for newspapers including ''The Mail on Sunday'', ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''. He was killed a ...

Scholarship for young photographers *2007: Vic Odden Award,

, Bath, UKVic Odden Award
,

. Accessed 21 November 2017. *2010: Third prize,

World Press Photo World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known for holding an annual press photography contest. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a ...

contest in the ''Daily Life - Stories'' category, for ''We English''. *2013: Honorary Fellowship, Royal Photographic Society, Bath, UK

Collections

Roberts' work is held in the following permanent collections: *

Pallant House Gallery Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th-century British art in the world. History The Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by ...

, Chichester, UK. *

Birmingham Central Library Birmingham Central Library was the main public library in Birmingham, England, from 1974 until 2013, replacing a library opened in 1865 and rebuilt in 1882. For a time the largest non-national library in Europe, it closed on 29 June 2013 and was ...

, Birmingham, UK. * Collection of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt, Germany. *

George Eastman Museum The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

, Rochester, NY: 159 works. *

, Chicago, IL. *

, Bradford, UK. *

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art. In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...

, Kansas City, MO. * Wilson Centre for Photography, London. *

Parliamentary Art Collection The Parliamentary Art Collection is a collection of around 8,500 artworks held by the United Kingdom Parliament. The works are jointly owned by the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Approximately 80% of the collection is displayed at the ...

, London.Photographer Simon Roberts selected as 2010 British election artist
", parliament.uk, 22 March 2010. Retrieved 12 February 2013.

Notes

References

External links

*
Roberts' We English websiteRoberts' The Election Project website
at The Online Photographer
Audio-visual slideshow interview with Roberts
at BBC News Online {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Simon 1974 births Living people 21st-century British photographers Alumni of the University of Sheffield Photographers from London