SIMON ROBERTS
‘Pierdom’
Robert Morat Gallery, Hamburg
01.11.2013 - 11.01.2014
As in previous work, notably “Motherland” (2007) and “We English” (2009), British photographer Simon Roberts examines cultural-historical questions of national identity and the attachment of people to their land through his large format landscape photographs. “Perhaps the most promising British image maker in years”, as German Photo Magazine called him in 2010, traveled across England over the last years, visiting coastal towns and producing a series of photographs of the pleasure piers built since Victorian times.
Originally planned as landing strips for steam boats, the piers soon became destinations themselves with cafes and souvenir shops, symbols of the longing for leisure, fresh air and holiday fun. And as always, the longing places tell much about the reality in the time of industrialization in the mid -19th Century.
Simon Roberts born 1974, studied Human Geography and Photography in Sheffield. He gained international reputation with the publication of his books “Motherland” (2007) and “We English” (2009). His work has been awarded and exhibited internationally, among others at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai and at the National Media Museum in Bradford, England. His work is found in important collections such as the Deutsche Börse Art Collection, the George Eastman House and the Wilson Centre for Photography. Simon Roberts lives and works in Brighton.