Simon Roberts Photography

Series - Urban Parks

Hannah Zelznick, Simone Pucher, Meghan Rowlands, and Kobe Ko Ngai Shing
Simon Roberts
Who he is:

● A British photographer
● Work deals with people and their relationships to landscapes
● Notions of identity and belonging
● In depth studies

Born:

● 5 February 1974 (currently 48 years old)

Awards

● World Press Photo Award for Daily Life

Education:

● The University of Sheffield

 Urban Parks
Cheonggyecheon, Seoul, South Korea (2015)

Commuters listen to a band on a pedestrian bridge

spanning the park. The stream, although important to
the city’s culture and development, was intermittent,
dwindling to a rivulet at times. To ensure a constant
flow, more than 30 million gallons of water is pumped in
daily from the nearby Han River. Most residents view
that artificiality as an acceptable trade-off for the
serenity the park brings to the city
Urban Parks

St James ’s Park , London, England, 2015

Urban Parks
English Garden, Munich, Germany, 2015

Summer attracts sunbathers, clothed and

otherwise, to the grassy banks of the
Schwabinger Bach. The meadows in this
park, one of Europe’s largest, have been
popular with nudists since the 1970s.
Among its features are a Chinese pagoda, a
Japanese teahouse, and two beer gardens
with seats for 9,500. The park’s designer
opted for a natural appearance rather than
the more formal layout typical of parks at
the time.
Urban Parks
Silesia Park , Chor zów, Poland, 2015

Wrested out of a wasteland of slag heaps,

bootleg mines, and garbage dumps, this
postindustrial landscape was transformed
into a verdant area that includes a zoo and a
dinosaur valley. Much of the work was done
by volunteers coordinated by the
Communist Party. In southern Poland’s
urban core, the park is an inviting place for
young people such as Maja Peryga (right),
who visited the rose garden to photograph
a friend
Urban Parks
The Park Güell, Barcelona, Spain, 2015

Designed by Antoni Gaudí as an exclusive

neighborhood for Barcelona’s wealthy, the site
failed as a real estate venture. The city bought
the development and opened it to the public.
Along the popular Dragon Stairway are mosaic
sculptures, including a colorful salamander
that has become the park’s unofficial mascot.
Above the columns a large plaza offers
sweeping views of the city and the
Mediterranean Sea.
The Story

● All represent a day in the park

● Illustrate people and their routine
● Everyone is doing their own thing and activity
● Interactions & on the go

Why Simon Produced this Series:

● Highlight people and their relationships with the landscapes around them
● Capture in the moment events
Why we chose these 5 photographs to represent the
series:
- The main focus of the series are urban parks, and a majority of the photographs include people in
them
- These 5 best show the unique scenes, as they are all in very different places but give off the same
feeling with people being sporadically placed throughout the photograph

Sequencing of photos:

- Start with the individuals almost entering the most green areas of an urban park
- End with an exit staircase
- The lake photos sequenced right next to each other
How contextual information can influence the meaning of
the narrative:
● Contextual information can influence the meaning of the narrative in many different ways. After
viewing each photo, it was believed that the photographer, Simon Roberts, intended to capture
liveliness, greeness, interactions amongst individuals, etc. However, after reading further into the
meaning of this series of images, that is not the intended message.
● “This photographic narrative offers a timeline of urban parks beginning in 1660, when St. James’s
Park in London was made available to the public, up to the present day.” “It illustrates the evolving
nature of urban parks over time and the philosophies behind them, reflecting the cultural history
and social values of their origin.” Roberts wanted to illustrate that this constant and rapid
urbanisation poses immense problems through effects such as environmental pollution, medical
issues, heat island effects, and climate change.
● After hearing this and then reviewing the series, feelings towards each image certainly changes
and has a deeper effect on the audience.
What makes this collection of work a series?
Photographic Terminology

● The composition:
○ Each photo depicts scenes of people enjoying different parks; the people are all unposed, feels like a moment
in time
● The color:
○ Roberts repeatedly photographs and edits the pictures to use a similar tone of green as well as other neutral
tones (The green of the trees and grass are cohesive throughout the series, and the lighter whites and grays
repeat seen in the walkways, buildings, and statues.)
● Framing:
○ Captures the whole landscape from an outside view
● Shape:
○ The pathways and river cut up the photo in mainly vertical lines
● Aperture:
○ Small - everything is clear, no blurred background
References
https://www.simoncroberts.com

https://www.simoncroberts.com/work/urban-parks/