Within Tom Pope’s time in Jersey, he has explored various conceptual and contemporary ideas surrounding Jersey’s Photographic Archive. The Societe Jersiaise has worked with Tom in order to re-create aspects of the Archive by designing existing and inventive procedures so that the public can interact with historic events the library withholds. Gareth Syvret, the creator and program leader from the photographic Archive described pope’s work as extensive, underlining the sheer developments Tom made to bring the archive to life. Syvret contributed to tom’s influences by grasping ranges of sources which were kept untouched from the Archive, which were then later on added back into modern life by techniques of restoration. Gareth, in his report on Tom’s final exhibition goes on to quote Sekula from 1997:

 

“Certain theoretical perspectives directed at photographic archives have sought to interrogate the disciplining power of the archive as a system within which, once accessioned, photographs lose meaning by becoming abstracted from the networks of communication and use to which they were put before entering the repository”.

At the end of Tom’s time here, his ending exhibition: “I Am Not Tom Pope, You Are All Tom Pope”, which was presented in The Old Town Police Station in St Helier, Jersey, coincides towards his recreation of the archive. One of the techniques Tom used to present a section in time was to cut out faces which he thought were ‘memorable’ or ‘significant’ which were then later on post-created into masks. Pope then questioned the public into wearing these masks, significantly ‘activating’ the Archive. This then relates back to Pope’s title: ‘You Are All Tom Pope’, reflecting that you are now the active Archive. Within a section of his exhibition, Tom continues to prolong the initiation of the Archive by using full spread pictures, took from a section of history. When Pope visited our school, the starting activity was to place these full spread sheets on a flat surface. We were then encouraged to flip a coin onto these photographs and wherever it lands would be cut out. This circle where the coin once was got turned into a badge, effectively to be ‘wearing’ and travelling the Archive.

 

 

Toms indigenous ideas console the reflection of how his work is very interactive and playful. In his works ‘Come Play Me’ you see Tom standing upright being turned into a human naughts and crosses board. This idea of how us as the reader we can evaluate and become one with the image is evident, as you are almost thrown into the image by Toms direct.

Here, Tom initiates this idea of connecting the next section of his images by connecting the geometric and lines naturally composed within the image. ‘Low Vs High’ shows the connections between objects such as poles, stands and infrastructures in order to make the images ‘flow’. This narrates a different certain type of story and document of the different series and periods of time which allows the reader to relate in a significant type of way.