This work, from the series Pierdom by Simon Roberts, focuses on a comprehensive survey of Britain’s pleasure piers. At the turn of the century, the British coastline boasted over 100 piers, some modest and functional structures, and others elegant and elaborate constructions thrusting out into the sea. Britain’s piers have become cultural landmarks - monuments of national identity and historical economic fortunes, from Victorian industrialism to the post-war boom. Roberts' work evokes recent economic downturn, which has caused many piers to close, but also the gradual re-awakening of our appreciation of these cultural landmarks. Pierdom was published as a book by Dewi Lewis in 2013.

Simon Roberts (b.1974) is a visual artist based in Brighton. Widely recognised for his large-format, tableaux photographs of the British landscape, Roberts also works with video, text and installations, which together, interrogate notions of identity and belonging, and the complex relationship between history, place and culture. He has exhibited widely and his photographs reside in major public and private collections, including the George Eastman House, Deutsche Börse Art Collection and the V&A. He has been recognised with numerous awards, including an Honorary Fellowship to the Royal Photographic Society.