Yury Toroptsov was the photographer in residence at the Jersey Photo Archives in 2014. He was born in 1974 in Vladivostok, in Russia. Toroptsov is a photographer who focuses on the common denominator for distant cultures. He looks at people and their identity and the permanence of myths. Memories, metamorphosis, profane and sacred are the recurring themes in his photographs. He currently lives and works in Paris.
During Toroptsov’s six month period in working in Jersey, he found some old videos from the Second World War of the Battle of Flowers which still went on even throughout the duration of the war.
http://www.toroptsov.com/en/projects/fairyland.htm
Toroptsov was influenced by a particular float called ‘Fairyland’ which is developed in the first video on his website of the Fairyland page. This interests me as he looks deeper into Jersey and uses the Archive as a way to access the present day. This backs up what the Archisle man stated that ‘you need to understand a history to anticipate the future’. We as a community need to reflect and understand the past to move forward.
One photo in particular which I like is the one of a bench with a plague on it that says ‘In Appreciation Of Being Jersey Born – K.J.H.’. The reason I really like this image is because of the simple message that we should be proud to be Jersey born. Often people tell me that they wish they weren’t from here or that they don’t consider themselves as from here but instead from the background of where their parents are from. I am proud and happy to have been born and live in such a beautiful island. Although the island has many setbacks and is very cushioned compared to the rest of the world, I think that it has so much to offer. In the beauty of its landscapes and all the different cultures we have on the island. I like this image because it is simple yet powerful.