Simon Roberts

Born 1974

Studied Human Geography at the University of Sheffield (B.A. 1996), subsequently he studied photography and decided to embark on a career in documentary photography. 

His work is often based on extensive travels including year-long tours of Russia (2004-2005) and England (2007-2008), taking photographs which explore people’s "relationship to landscape and notions of identity and belonging." These are published in the form of books and exhibitions, Motherland in the case of the first example and We English in the second.

His work has attracted international acclaim with exhibitions held at the National Science and Media Museum (UK), the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma (Italy), and the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow (Russia). the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (South Korea) the Musée de l’Elysée (Switzerland), and the Hepworth Wakefield (UK) and elsewhere.

In 2010 he was appointed by the House of Commons Works of Art Committee to produce a record of the general election on behalf of the UK Parliamentary Art Collection and, in 2014, represented Britain during the UK-Russia Year of Culture. He has been recognised with numerous awards including, the Vic Odden Award (2007), New York Photo Festival (Best Photography Book) (2008), Honorary Fellowship to the Royal Photographic Society (2013), the World Press Photo Award (2010), Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2014).

Roberts and has been a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham.

Outdoor Market in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia, 2005