We English – Simon Roberts

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‘We English’ is body of work produced by Simon Roberts in 2009. Roberts travelled in a motorhome with his wife and daughter capturing “large format tableaux photographs of the English at leisure” (We English – Simon Roberts, 2009) The work explores issues of national identity and the connection between people and place, particularly the British landscape.

The two examples I’ve included above deliberately to portray elements of our ideas of ‘Englishness’. The image on the left of Haxey Hood could, if you removed the crowd of people, be a Constable painting. The presence of the church, the big sky and the general colourisation of the image are distinctly pastoral and picturesque. The image on the right of the football fans relates to typical English tribalism.

Karine Chambefort-Kay writes about the term ‘Banal Nationalism’, a phrase coined by Michael Billig in his book of the same name. Billig presents the view of ‘forgotten rememberance’ which refers to this unconscious act of ‘flagging’ in the sense of discreet symbols of nationhood that are all around us. Chambefort-Kay argues that although Roberts work includes these representations of banal nationalism and even in some cases, overt nationalism, the work also explores how these symbols are represented and received.

Roberts approach to the project was to ask the public to suggest locations and events for him to photograph which placed him alongside his fellow countrymen rather than being simply an onlooker. This produced over 800 posts of ideas from the public which included many scenes that could be regarded as “Constable picturesque” or Turner-esque but mainly relating to history and childhood memory.

There were some objections to this portrayal of the English identity. It was criticised as being too picturesque. It could be said to perpetuate the idea of ‘Little Englanders’ excluding the multiculturalism of the city. Indeed the people in the images are mostly white and we presume them to be ‘English’. Chambefort-Kay however argues against this. She asserts that the images instead display an “openness of conviviality”. (Simonroberts.com, 2014).

This work has given me a lot to think about. I have experienced life in a little village and life in London. Certainly during the EU referendum, I was very quick to point the finger at ‘Little Englanders’ and call out what I saw as overt nationalism. It is there of course but this topic highlights perhaps the traditional distinctions made between ‘Urban’ and ‘Rural’ and the perceived gap between them particularly the gap between London and the rest of the Country.

Bibliography

1. LensCulture. 2009. We English – Photographs And Text By Simon Roberts | Lensculture. [online] Available at: <https://www.lensculture.com/articles/simon-roberts-we-english&gt; [Accessed 16 May 2020].
2. Simoncroberts.com. 2014. [online] Available at: <https://www.simoncroberts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Karine-CHAMBEFORT-KAY.pdf&gt; [Accessed 16 May 2020].
3. Simon Roberts. 2009. We English – Simon Roberts. [online] Available at: <https://www.simoncroberts.com/work/we-english/&gt; [Accessed 16 May 2020].