Simon Roberts

Port officials, Vladivostok, Far East Russia, 2004

Simon Roberts (b.1974, England) graduated from The University of Sheffield (1996) followed by a Distinction in Photography from the National Council for the Training of Journalists. His photographs have been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai and are held in a numerous collections. He has been published in Granta, The Sunday Times Magazine,  Details,  Esquire, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and others. Simon received the ‘Ian Parry Award’ (1998), a ‘Getty Grant of Editorial Photography’ (2006) and the ‘Bright Spark Award’ from the Magenta Foundation in Toronto (2006). He was a student at the ‘World Press Photo  Masterclass (2003) and identified by PDN’s 30 Emerging Artists (2004). More recently he received a grant from the Arts Council England to support “We English.” Motherland, his first monograph, was published in March 2007 by Chris Boot Ltd. He is represented by The Photographers’ Gallery in London and Klompching Gallery in New York.

About the Photograph:

“This photograph was taken three months into my year’s journey across Russia. Vladivostok, literally ‘Lord of the East’, is located less than 100 kilometers East of the Chinese border, and just across the Sea of Japan. It is the home port of the Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet. I came across these port officials early one morning during their patrol of the port and asked them to pose for a portrait. It was a fleeting moment, they weren’t able to stop and talk. However, in this split second, the photograph has captured their formal postures and apparent pride in their work. I’m particularly taken by the details in the image, note the over sized hat and jacket of the man on the right.”