| WHAT? | I am going to visit water-cress grower Colin Roche, he is Jersey’s only commercial watercress grower, and supplies all local food wholesales as well as smaller farmhouse shops and nearly all of the suppliers of fresh fruit/vegetables in the Central market.
I am going to spend a morning with Colin on his farm in St Martin’s where he has agreed to show me around and answer any questions I might have. I am intrigued to find out about what Colin does and how he excels so well in an unusual form of local farming. Colin also seems an interesting character, being the first non-Jersey born farmer to e commercially successful in the island. What is also interesting about Colin is that he picks all of his crops by hand – with no help from anyone else.
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| WHEN? | I will visit on the morning/afternoon of the 16 April |
| WHY? | Like tomato farming, watercress is not a product which immediately comes to a person’s attention when they think of local Jersey produce.
Watercress is a fascinating crop, and is considered a ‘super food’ because it is highly packed with rich and important nutrients such as iron, calcium and folic acid, in addition to vitamins A and C, even in just small doses. I want to find out more about the watercress industry in Jersey (which Colin appears to have a monopoly on) and look into how this unusual form of farming in Jersey has not only commercially viable but exploring how it is revolutionary in the way many people view how farming within Jersey is viewed: how it has modernised so that it fits two different outlooks, protecting classic and renowned farming produce eg. milk and potatoes, whilst at the same time allowing scope and opportunities for products such as watercress to develop and grow on a commercial and cultural level.
This shoot, along with my previous shoot of Gordon Blake’s farm, will look at the new trends of local farming. The industries with challenge tradition and look towards how Jersey’s farming can be defined in new ways. |
| CONTEXT/FOCUS? | My main focus in this particular shoot will be to focus on the counter-culture of Jersey produce, looking at how an unusual form and source of farming by a farmer with an unusual origin and background, has broken into credibility and main-stream local farming.
I will be looking therefore at how my images can best serve to highlight this difference from the more mainstream areas of local produce which I am also investigating over the course of this process.
In this shoot I am attempting to move away from the theme and style of my project. I want this shoot to serve as a anolymy which breaks away from any set style, producing a body of images which is slightly more experimental and creative that other parts of this project. The context of what I am photographing therefore very much links to how will photograph, photographing in a slightly different way because what I will be photographing is in itself, different to the norm. |
| WHAT TYPES OF IMAGES WILL I TAKE? | For this shoot I want to try and get images which mainly reflect the style of Martin Parr. I want to use this style because I believe it will enable me to more easily reflect the quirky nature of Colin’s job, as the Island’s sole commercial watercress grower – done with very little/no assistance.
I want my images to be fun and lively, as this specific side to the shoot is slightly different than the other farms I will be visiting, because of the fact it is so different in what is done and how it is done. I believe therefore that this shoot will be a good opportunity to be more creative in the types of images a take – and thus a good opportunity to take more risks. |
| MY HOPES FOR THE SHOOT | After speaking to Colin over the phone to arrange this shoot it is clear that he is a very charismatic person. I am confident he will be happy to help me over this project and give me some good information regarding his specific trade as well as his contacts across the island.
I get the impression that because of his lively personality after speaking to him for a few minutes (and also what I have been told) along with the unusual nature of his job, that Colin is clearly an interesting and fascinating person who has an unique way of looking and farming, a perspective which largely emerges as a result of his non-Jersey background and upbringing. I believe I can get a lot of interesting images simply photographing Colin’s process and methods. I hope to therefore build up a sense of Colin’s character into the images. His lively presence and charismatic personality reflecting the slightly more positive and vibrant style which I am going for. |
