Amazon Warehouse
Ben Roberts
from the series ‘Amazon Unpacked’
Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK 2011
The interior of Amazon's giant fulfilment centre in Rugeley, England is the size of nine football pitches. The efficiency of these warehouses is what enables Amazon to put parcels on customers doorsteps so quickly. Ben Roberts was one of the first photographers to be granted access to Amazon’s warehouses.
‘What's interesting about the Rudgley centre is that on paper, you drop in as a visitor, and when you're in there it isn't too bad. It’s not too loud, it's bright, it's spacious, it's clean. But the reality is that if you work there, then you're walking around that space for 13 to 15 kilometres over an eight hour shift. You're being told where to go by this wrist mounted GPS, which tells you where you have to collect things from shelves.
What the image represents to me is the early days of the automation of humans in the UK. The cleanliness, the brightness, the order of the photograph, I think reflects that. The image is devoid of humans and what was remarkable was that the warehouse itself was remarkably devoid of humanity. I think that the photograph is a fair reflection of that.’
Specification
Ben Roberts
Originally from Birmingham UK, Ben Roberts lives and works in Madrid, Spain.
In 2009, Ben received the British Journal of Photography’s ‘Project Assistance Award’ for his series ‘Mas Se Perdio En Cuba’, a personal journey through the landscapes of Spain’s economic crisis. This culminated in a June 2011 solo show at the Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff.
His 2012 photo book ‘Occupied Spaces’, published by HERE Press, was exhibited at the 2013 Paris Photo ‘Open Book’ exhibition curated by Martin Parr. The publication was a conceptual exploration of the Occupy St. Paul’s protest in central London. In response to media declarations that most of the protestors’ tents were empty, Roberts photographed the tent interiors devoid of people, allowing the traces of occupation to speak for themselves. The book was subsequently chosen for the 3rd volume of Phaidon’s ‘The Photobook - A History’, and for the 2014 Noordelicht Festival in Holland.
In November 2011 Ben was granted access to photograph Amazon’s huge fulfilment centre in Rugeley, Staffordshire. The resulting series, ‘Amazon Unpacked’, contrasted the clinical spaces of the warehouse with a town still struggling to recover from the closure of the local coal mines in 1993. The photographs were later exhibited around the UK as part of a Hayward Gallery touring show called, ‘All That Is Solid Melts Into Air’. Curated by Jeremy Deller, the exhibition was a survey of industrial Britain and it’s links with popular culture.
Ben was awarded a ‘Best in Book’ prize in the 2017 Creative Review Photography Annual for his series ‘Stepping Stone’ - a study of the landscapes of Lesbos and how they have been affected by the refugee crisis.
Ben is currently shooting a new body of work, photographing landscapes and portraits in La Pedriza, a mountainous valley of granite monoliths in the Sierra de Guadarrama, north of Madrid.
Print Care
Paper and ink
We print on Hahnemuhle Baryta FB, an archival fibre based 350gsm fine art paper. It is a bright white paper with a traditional character finish and heavy weighting. This paper has long been the industry standard paper for digital printing.
What is a giclée print?
Giclée comes from French and literally means ‘squirt’, referring to the spray of very fine drops of ink that produce an inkjet print. We print with archival paper and pigment inks to the accepted standards of fine art giclee printing found within the collectors market. Prints should last over a hundred years and with care longer than this. Avoiding extremes of light, heat and humidity will help prolong the life of your print.
Your Print
When will I receive my print?
We produce prints in a batch every two weeks. Shipping can take up to one week in the UK, and two to three weeks internationally. Orders should be received within 3-5 weeks depending on your location.
What will I receive?
Your print will be posted flat, in a protective sleeve, to avoid damage or curling in transit. Prints come with a Panos Prints provenance certificate with background information about the image and the photographer.
The paper is A4 sized, the image will be smaller than A4 with a white border around it - see Image Specification for exact image size. Borders will be laid out as demonstrated by the print images on the site. We do not provide framing services and images of framed prints are only meant to be illustrative.