Simon Roberts Landscape Research Post

  Simon Roberts is a British photographer who focused on landscape photography. His project 'We Britain' proved to be a extremely popular project. He often employed expansive landscape photographs, his approach is one of creating wide-ranging surveys of our time, which communicate on important social, economic and political issues. He has published three critically acclaimed monographs, Motherland (Chris Boot, 2007),We English (Chris Boot, 2009) – voted as one of the best photography books of the past decade – and Pierdom (Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2013).

   This image was taken by Simon Roberts and was part of the 'We English' monograph. It was taken in Golden Horn Bay, VIadivostock in 2004. I like this image because of the natural environment. The trees represent line photography also. Vertical lines present power, direction and change. The trees are tall and cover most of the image. I like this image because it presents feelings of freedom and being enclosed within a peaceful environment. I could use the idea of photographing forests and natural environments in my documentary project because I really like photographing the natural world. This image is interesting because we can see a person walking amongst the trees in the background. We are unable to tell from this image what they are exactly doing there but it may show that people use this area to find peace and quiet. The sun looks warm shining through the trees which also radiates positive energy and calm feelings. 

  The image presented was taken in Herbedens Farm, Hampshire - 2007.  This image was also taken as part of Simon Roberts monograph 'We English'. The photographer clearly wanted to present the stereotypical ideas that English life involves living on a farm, shooting as a sport, drinking tea etc. This image presents a man, shooting a bird/clay disc which is a popular sport in England. Not only this, but they are shooting in a golden yellow field filled with crops ready to harvest. Roberts has presented here the rural parts of England and there is a very little amount of houses that can be seen in this image, only some in the background. The sky is clear blue and 'perfect'. This image looks like a a scene which could be a painting because it is picturesque  and peaceful. there is not very many people around in comparison to a heavily built up city such as London. I again could use this image to inspire me when taking pictures for documentary photography. I could take images of various fields similar to this image or stereotypical picturesque landscapes which are associated with English life. 

   I like this image because it is unusual. It is not common to see a red double decker bus in the countryside amongst fields because we would usually expect to see them in a heavy populated area in England such as London. As we can see, there are not many places for a double decker bus to go because there are not very many houses or buildings around. the vibrant red colour of the bus contrasts against the green of the fields. These are an example of complimentary colours.