Simon Roberts on how the creation of the We English collection lead him to take his young family on a 6 month tour of England in a motorhome.

In August 2007, Simon Roberts began his journey around England in search of scenes which depict the English at leisure. Simon initially set out alone, but felt that the project required a continuous trip around the country in order to document the transition of seasons and how we relate to the landscapes throughout their cycle.

His wife and young daughter joined him on a six month journey around the country in a campervan, which also provided Simon with an elevated vantage point over the landscape, a unique characteristic of his photographic gaze.

The journey was a personal pilgrimage for Simon, as it allowed him to explore places he'd never before seen, and return to places he had visited in his childhood, this time as a father.

Though the experience was tough, Simon explains that he chooses to work in an intense way, producing work in a fixed period of time using the journey as a metaphor to produce work rather than breaking the rhythm which it allows.

As the scene being photographed is about the landscape itself rather than focused on one element, Simon is never entirely sure what the results will be. In a claustrophobic scene he has to choose a moment to take the picture, and large scale prints reveal details you wouldn't necessarily see in smaller images.

It is with this detail that you begin to understand people's relationship with both the place and one another. Likewise, when you understand more about the place, it helps you read the picture.