Ideas of Family: 

With the recent development of my life as a family, it is suitable to base this project on the transition of me moving house in early December 2015. This building project has been live for nearly over 5 years, and has been a long process due to the reserves for materials, dealing with the National Trust and allowing the correct methods to be done in order to restore the house’s natural and original  form. Le Petit Fort, for nearly half a decade has become the pivitol force within our lives as a family. Both of my parents have spent countless hours on the development of our new family home, as they have effortlessly incorporated the minimalist details of their own lives with reflects on what life was like when the house was first originally built.

As a starting point, I have researched past images of the house in order for me to make a comparative link to suggest more relevance within my ideas. This was all done with help from the Societe Jerseiase and Jersey’s Photographic Archive. With help from Gareth Syvret, we researched these past images of the house with the references tagged along with the images. This was all stored in a box of photographs given by the Bailiff of Jersey, between the era’s of 1930’s and 40’s: a post war memorial. I then learnt that my house was an important artifact and gem to the German soldiers which were residence in St Ouen’s Bay during the time of the occupation in World War ll.  From this, my ideas then began to develop, I found relevance into my project by being able to contextualize and relate to the history of my new house.

• Contextualizing with the changes and developments society have influenced the concept of a family.
• Noticing society’s expectations of of a family: what is the control of responsibility? What are guidelines parents have to follow?
• How do individuals within a family react towards each other? How are they genetically similar?
• Are there individuals that look similar? How can you dictate these similarities?

This aspect for me is very interesting, and I would like to investigate these factors in greater depth by recreating this style myself. The style and resiliency of the prints when disposed are unconditional to the time period and era. The rustic and compound prints objectifies images in greater detail, as colours are abbreviated allot further along with edges and geometry created from sharp lines. This could be captured with use of a disposable camera. Exploring this theme of disposables allows me to reconnect back into my childhood, as a way of integrating with the present without compromising and changing the perceptions of the past. For me, as a kid, using disposable camera was a source of fun for me and my family. The camera acts almost as a time capsule, reflecting back on the times humorous and laughable things that wouldn’t usually be remembered by memory. As a kid, using this camera as a game enabled me to take chances with the outcomes, as once taken, I would look forward to the interpretation of the moment once developed.

As you can see from these pictures, a sense of history is elevated.   I want to approach this task open-minded, as from 2010, the growth and development of our family has changed and continues to change with a developing world.

I plan to initially capture my dad as the driving force of this project. He began this project initially from his idea, he was the one that initiated this move and constructed the foundations of the house as well as the various plans.