We English - Simon Roberts

Simon Roberts: As we are so saturated with imagery everyday, I aim to create photographs that reward the viewer for the time they spend studying them. Often it is the tiny details that are most significant, such as the split second moment where the two groups of walkers make contact because of their dogs straining at the leash.
Greg Hobson, Curator of Photographs at the National Media Museum: I really enjoy the way that Simon has photographed a majestic, typically Turneresque landscape and punctuated it with a tiny line of people, like a Haiku or fragment of code.

Simon Roberts: This is one of my favorite photographs from the We English series, as it throws up rich, new details every time I look at it. I'm particularly taken by the number of people wearing socks with their shorts and the couple sat with a bumper pack of Walkers crisps!
Greg Hobson: This is one of the busiest photographs in the series. Replete with detail, it never fails to throw up some new mini-dram; yet I'm constantly drawn back to the giant bag of crisps, and the thought that they might have all been consumed during that day.

Simon Roberts: This photograph reminds me of the statistics that illustrate the seven million who visit the countryside each weekend. Many people do not venture far from designated places - from picnic tables and parking spaces for cars, motorbikes and burger vans. These gatherings are nearly always on the margins of the area of beauty.
Greg Hobson: The burger van, once a sign of modern progress in the world of mobile food, now appears archaic - nostalgic even - and acts as a reminder that we are in a resolutely English landscape.

12 MARCH – 5 SEPTEMBER 2010