Outdoor Leisure Activities in Simon Roberts’s We English Photographic Project: Re-writing landscape and nation
Simon Roberts’s We English series of photographs produced in 2008 has encountered unprecedented success in Britain and abroad. Recording scenes of outdoor leisure activities in various places in England, it has become in a few years the most exhibited series in the history of British photography. It...
Kaydedildi:
| Yayımlandı: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
|---|---|
| Yazar: | |
| Materyal Türü: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Dil: | Anglais |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
Angles
2020
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| Konular: | |
| Online Erişim: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| id |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_1241 |
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| record_format |
openedition |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
représentation photographie Grande-Bretagne anglicité loisirs d’extérieurs paysage Roberts Simon representation photography Great-Britain leisure Englishness landscape outdoors Roberts Simon |
| spellingShingle |
représentation photographie Grande-Bretagne anglicité loisirs d’extérieurs paysage Roberts Simon representation photography Great-Britain leisure Englishness landscape outdoors Roberts Simon Chambefort, Karine Outdoor Leisure Activities in Simon Roberts’s We English Photographic Project: Re-writing landscape and nation |
| description |
Simon Roberts’s We English series of photographs produced in 2008 has encountered unprecedented success in Britain and abroad. Recording scenes of outdoor leisure activities in various places in England, it has become in a few years the most exhibited series in the history of British photography. It was also published by Chris Boot as a book of fifty-six photographs. The photos show groups of people involved in a variety of activities like hiking, paragliding, angling, hunting, bird watching, horseracing, tobogganing, “mud-racing”, picnicking, or just strolling and relaxing. As the title of the series invites the viewer to consider the Englishness of the activities represented, We English is first analysed as an update on previous representations of English customs, by looking at the rich intertext in Simon Roberts’s pictures, through centuries of English visual culture from 18th century paintings to contemporary photography. Yet this article aims to establish that there is more to Simon Roberts’s project than merely a cultural theatre where English traditions are re-enacted. It is shown that the photographer has considerably broadened the scope through key aesthetic choices. By exploring the relationship between people and public places, We English turns outdoor leisure and landscape into a social theatre. The sense of community and belonging emerges out of shared environment and space rather than from cultural practices that are reproduced and re-presented over time. This paper argues that this approach allows the photographer to reformulate the question of Englishness and national identity altogether and to offer new perspectives on rural England, with outdoor leisure activities creating a sense of openness and conviviality contrasting with previous notions of a closed, stratified, ethnocentric society. |
| author |
Chambefort, Karine |
| author_facet |
Chambefort, Karine |
| author_sort |
Chambefort, Karine |
| title |
Outdoor Leisure Activities in Simon Roberts’s We English Photographic Project: Re-writing landscape and nation |
| title_short |
Outdoor Leisure Activities in Simon Roberts’s We English Photographic Project: Re-writing landscape and nation |
| title_full |
Outdoor Leisure Activities in Simon Roberts’s We English Photographic Project: Re-writing landscape and nation |
| title_fullStr |
Outdoor Leisure Activities in Simon Roberts’s We English Photographic Project: Re-writing landscape and nation |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Outdoor Leisure Activities in Simon Roberts’s We English Photographic Project: Re-writing landscape and nation |
| title_sort |
outdoor leisure activities in simon roberts’s we english photographic project: re-writing landscape and nation |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.1241 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/1241 |
| _version_ |
1877293947937619968 |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_1241 https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.1241 urn:doi:10.4000/angles.1241 en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/1241 2020-07-16T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/9mzn https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Outdoor Leisure Activities in Simon Roberts’s We English Photographic Project: Re-writing landscape and nation Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Chambefort, Karine représentation photographie Grande-Bretagne anglicité loisirs d’extérieurs paysage Roberts Simon representation photography Great-Britain leisure Englishness landscape outdoors Roberts Simon Simon Roberts’s We English series of photographs produced in 2008 has encountered unprecedented success in Britain and abroad. Recording scenes of outdoor leisure activities in various places in England, it has become in a few years the most exhibited series in the history of British photography. It was also published by Chris Boot as a book of fifty-six photographs. The photos show groups of people involved in a variety of activities like hiking, paragliding, angling, hunting, bird watching, horseracing, tobogganing, “mud-racing”, picnicking, or just strolling and relaxing. As the title of the series invites the viewer to consider the Englishness of the activities represented, We English is first analysed as an update on previous representations of English customs, by looking at the rich intertext in Simon Roberts’s pictures, through centuries of English visual culture from 18th century paintings to contemporary photography. Yet this article aims to establish that there is more to Simon Roberts’s project than merely a cultural theatre where English traditions are re-enacted. It is shown that the photographer has considerably broadened the scope through key aesthetic choices. By exploring the relationship between people and public places, We English turns outdoor leisure and landscape into a social theatre. The sense of community and belonging emerges out of shared environment and space rather than from cultural practices that are reproduced and re-presented over time. This paper argues that this approach allows the photographer to reformulate the question of Englishness and national identity altogether and to offer new perspectives on rural England, with outdoor leisure activities creating a sense of openness and conviviality contrasting with previous notions of a closed, stratified, ethnocentric society. La série de photographies de Simon Roberts intitulée We English (2008) connaît un succès sans précédent en Grande-Bretagne et dans le monde, sous la forme à la fois d’expositions et d’un livre de cinquante-six photographies. Ces images réalisées avec un appareil à chambre grand format représentent des scènes d’extérieurs dans différents lieux d’Angleterre, où des groupes de personnes s’adonnent à tous genres d’activités de loisirs comme la randonnée, le piquenique, la chasse, le parapente, la promenade ou le farniente à la plage. Le titre We English semble inviter les spectateurs à déceler des caractéristiques typiquement anglaises dans les pratiques et les paysages représentés. Cet article interroge donc en premier lieu la notion d’anglicité à travers les loisirs et les paysages photographiés par Simon Roberts. Ceux-ci constituent-ils un simple théâtre culturel où se jouent et se re-jouent les traditions anglaises ? Les images de Simon Roberts présentent certes un très riche intertexte avec toute la culture visuelle anglaise que nous retraçons brièvement de la peinture à la photographie contemporaine. Elles peuvent en cela être considérées comme une contribution de plus à la longue histoire de la représentation des loisirs anglais. Néanmoins, cet article montre comment les choix esthétiques de Simon Roberts tendent à transformer ce théâtre culturel en théâtre social. En effet, au fil des photographies, le sentiment d’appartenance et de communauté semble émerger avant tout du partage de l’espace public et de l’expérience collective, et d’une forme de convivialité. L’anglicité ainsi définie s’avère donc beaucoup plus ouverte et moins ethnocentrique qu’il n’y paraît. Au-delà, la série livre une véritable réflexion sur la notion même d’identité nationale. |