Exercise - We English

WE ENGLISH - WORK IN PROGRESS - SIMON ROBERTS

the ' We English' images can be seen here...

http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/Foto825_WeEnglish.pdf

http://simoncroberts.com/work/we-english/#PHOTO_0 here...


We English Blog ..here ..

Simon Roberts spent a year travelling Russia and returned to England with 5,000 photographs
and no publishing deal.  He did manage to get his work published and it was very successful.

Four years later he completed another tour this time of England this time with a publisher. It was to be of the English at play and there hadn't been anything like this for a long while.  It was going to be both beautiful and romantic ..

He needed to promote the project and luckily knew the picture editor at the BBC website, which is the second most popular website in terms of traffic.
Whilst he was on tour the 'Times' published a weekly dispatch which was an invitation to readers to suggest a location or event for Roberts to visit the following week.
The dedicated website then became a living archive - this was crucial in audience building which in turn sells books which in turn pleases publishers.

Roberts had a good relationship with the art council and gained a £ 10,000 grant.

Roberts made a conscious decision to move away from the individuals he had photographed across Russia.  He found himself drawn to how people interact with the landscape, how the english spend their leisure time.  To achieve this he decided people should occupy no more than one third of the frame, which lead to harsh editing.

He is looking to his next project - a portrait of bethlehem.