As part of a year-long series on The Power of Parks, National Geographic magazine commissioned Simon to travel to ten urban parks in seven countries. 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 photographed:
Buffalo Bayou Park, Houston, USA,
Central Park, New York, USA
Cheonggyecheon Stream, Seoul, South Korea
English Garden, Munich, Germany
Park Güell, Barcelona, Spain
Presidio, San Francisco, USA
Rotary Children’s Garden, San Jose, USA
Sherbourne Common, Toronto, Canada
Silesia Park and Zoological Garden, Katowice, Poland
St. James’s Park, London, UK
You can read the accompanying article by Ken Otterbourg, here. Simon continued the series as part of a personal project that can be viewed here.