During my research process, I thought it would be beneficial to contact the Societe Jerseaise Photographic Archive in Jersey, in order to get a larger perspective towards what ‘love‘ was like historically, and whether it fits my specifications of it being seen by society as ‘truthful‘.
I emailed Karen and Gareth explaining the hypothesis of my project and that I was exploring the perceptions of what love is like in the modern day and our contemporary lifestyle patterns, in conjunction to what was seen as traditional methods of relationships. Gareth suggested I should look into weddings as a good way of approaching love, and I visited the Archival Website and searched up images associated to words like “weddings“, “ceremony” and “Church“. These where the following results:
Image Ref: SJPA/001378, “Wedding portrait of Captain Frank Ahier and Mrs Hilda Ahier, posed in front of hedge in a garden”, dated between 1898 – 1903Image Ref: SJPA/005699, Studio portrait of young couple, Mr and Mrs Catton of 1 Brighton Villas, St Helier man holding top hat (possibly wedding portrait)”, Dated 1903Image Ref: SJPA/017688, “Painting or print depicting interior of large church or cathedral, sun streaming through stained glass window, service in progress, with large congregation”. Photographed by Lester Baudains, dated 1955 – 1975. Uncertain copyright.Image Ref: SJPA/005705, “Studio group portrait of Maillard wedding group; bride and groom, two bridesmaids and two men”, Dated 1907Image Ref: SJPA/001282, “Portrait of an unidentified woman wearing wedding dress with long train, dress decorated with flowers and woman holding bouquet (dated in French 20th June)”. Photographed by Ernest Baudoux.Image Ref: SJPA/000889, “Studio portrait of Mrs Logan wearing high necked wedding dress with veil and long train”. Photographed by Ernest Baudoux.
The Laporello
During my time down at the Societe Jerseaise Photographic Archive, Gareth had kept ahold of a archival artefact that had been sitting around for a while within the archive. Gareth kindly allowed me to take the Laporello and to use it at my own will. I think this Laporello is beautiful, and could be something that I use as part of my final piece. The red colouring of the box could be used as a metaphor for Love. Love symbolically can be associated with the colour due to its passionate and vibrant animosity.
Further Research
Reading the news paper the other day, I came across an article explaining about how a story of a man names Joseph Tierney. The article reads how Tierney’s death during the Nazi War, is remembered on a “small plinth in a rural part of the Czech republic“, in the village of P´sov. The Jersey Islander was taken in 1943 after the German Forces arrested him for ‘spreading seditious information’ – “small hand written notes transcribed from BBC Broadcasts taken from illicit wireless radios“. The article’s main focus was how Islander Pat Fisher found the plinth in P´sov and discovered the remarkable finding of her father after spending decades wondering what had become of him.
“I knew he had been taken and I knew the reason why he had been taken, but mum never really spoke about it because it upset her so much”.
I felt this article has had quite an influence on my project as this concludes the desperation of communicating with someone when social media is not around. The difference of this is this is not particularly a ‘love story‘ but a story including ‘loved ones‘. This similar concept still speaks the same anthology’s, and that is that the difference between contemporary love and traditional love is obviously comparable. Mrs. Fisher goes on to add how letters where so important in tracing the footsteps of his life:
“Really, we didn’t know what happened because he wrote letters from Frankfurt, but there were no more letters after that.”
The discovery of her fathers whereabouts, Mrs. Fisher added how it “reduced her and her family to tears”, and following the breakthrough, Fisher was then invited to take part in a BBC Documentary entitled “Finding Our Fathers – Lost Heroes of WW11‘ along with Guernsey resident Jean Harris, who was also on the search for her fathers grave.
Mrs. Fishers mother Eileen kept allot of documents relating to Mr. Tierney’s imprisonment on the Island, as well as letters he had sent round from various camps. Despite the camps awful condition, the Jerseyman’s letters and messages from Europe maintain a lightness and a “sense of optimism“. Mr. Tierney frequently refers to his wife as ‘Snooks‘ and sometimes off as “the twerp“. The note begins:
“My husband Joseph Murray Tierney was arrested by the Germans on March 3, 1943, five months before the birth of our daughter. The Gestapo placed him in solitary confinement in the Nazi Prison in St. Helier, Jersey, where he went through many nights of mental torture. The Germans then took me to the prison where they used me as the final weapon in their foul endeavours to make my husband talk and confess to what they already knew. They threatened me, pregnant at the time with being sent to a concentration camp in front of my husband. After a whole day’s worth of questioning they allowed me to finally go home. After this experience I was I was always terrified whenever I saw a member of the Gestapo or the Feldpolizei”.
I feel this quote really strongly shows how relationships where put under allot more stress during the time of the Second World War. In contrast to our contemporary lifestyles, this shows how these sort of factors seriously compromised the emotional and physical states of what relationships had the envelop.
Pictured: Joseph and Eileen Tierney in happier times – on their wedding day.
“Never in any of his letters does he ever complain. He said all the time, “don’t worry about me, I’m alright” He was so caring. Even in letters some people who had been in prison with him wrote, they said what a caring gentlemen he was”.
Mrs. Fisher is pictured below holding a picture with her father, Joseph Tierney.
