043 - Simon Roberts
© Simon Roberts
Simon Roberts is a British photographer based in Brighton, on the south coast of England, whose work deals with our relationship to landscape and notions of identity and belonging. Often employing expansive, large-format landscape photographs, his approach is one of creating wide-ranging surveys of our time, which communicate on important social, economic and political issues.
Simon is perhaps best known for his major long-term project We English, for which he undertook 12 month road trip around England in a camper van, accompanied by his pregnant wife and 2 year old daughter. The resulting work has been exhibited widely, touring to over thirty national and international venues and was published as a book by Chris Boot and voted by Martin Parr as one of the best photography books of the past decade. He’s had solo shows at the National Media Museum, Bradford, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, and Multimedia Art Museum Moscow. His photographs reside in major public and private collections, including the George Eastman House, Deutsche Börse Art Collection and Wilson Centre for Photography.
In recognition for his work, Simon has received several awards including the Vic Odden Award - offered for a notable achievement in the art of photography by a British photographer - along with bursaries from the National Media Museum, John Kobal Foundation and grants from Arts Council England. He was commissioned as the official Election Artist by the House of Commons Works of Art Committee to produce a record of the 2010 General Election on behalf of the UK Parliament. In 2012 he was granted access by the International Olympic Committee to photograph the London Olympics and most recently was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. As well as We English, he has published two other critically acclaimed monographs, Motherland (Chris Boot, 2007) and Pierdom (Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2013).
In episode 043, Simon discusses, among other things:
What he's been up to
Having a plan and having to be 'nimble'
Realising the value of ideas
Navel gazing and the state of UK photographic institutions
Book mentioned: Heimat by Peter Bialobrzeski
“What a shit state British photography is in in terms of institutions! We’ve gotta kind of keep flying the flag and keep somehow finding places that will keep showing work and keep collecting work...”
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