Recently, I have discussed the life of my great grandfather as my interest in pool and snooker has reminded my mother and grandmother of his hobbies. Raymond Harold Cummins was born in 1912, the year of the Titanic. He was a through and through Jersey bean, born and bred in the island and in this tiny channel island he met my great grandmother, Denise Urroutia. In hearing and discussing my great grandfather’s life, I realized there is a lot of similarities in our interests despite the fact I only met him on three occasions before he died.

Following the Second World War (a topic I’ve recently studied in A2 History), Denise gave birth to my grandmother in 1949, which is when Raymond became a writer for the Jersey Evening Post. Raymond’s talent for writing is reflective of my passion for creative writing and the selection of English Literature as an A Level choice. As my grandmother grew up, she informed me of her memories from her father playing snooker in the local snooker hall known as ‘Jersey Mechanics Institution’, which was formed in 1902. She recollects how she went to watch him play at the club for the island against Guernsey, the local channel island rival. Raymond’s interest and talent in snooker compares to my hobbie of playing pool as I have also represented the island for pool as in 2015, I went to Blackpool for the U15 National Championships.

All of this combined led to me asking for pictures of my great grandfather which is when my grandmother produced this picture.

A perfect portrait of a man who is also described as perfect by my mother and grandmother. In this picture, he is in his late sixties/seventies.

I decided to recreate this picture but with me as a model representing my great grandfather as we seem to have so much in common. I collected some clear lensed glasses, a grey polo shirt and white sweatshirt. For taking the picture, I set up a tripod with the camera attached to the shoe facing at face height, basing my positioning as similar to the one in the image as possible. Once I chose where to take the picture/s, I set up the camera so it was on “Self-Timer:Continuous” so I could get a few images at a time.

I placed these images in a contact sheet in order to help me distinguish which is the most comparable to the picture of my great grandfather.

I edited the photo I thought was best suited to the image of my great grandfather so that it was in black and white.  The difference between our two photographs is of course the person, the glasses, the actual clothes but technically, my photo was taken using flash as the room was dimmly lighted, where as Raymond’s looks as if it was taken using studio lights with a typical white studio background. My photo’s quality is impaired through the shadow on the back wall from my head, as well as the slight flash on my left lens. If I was to do it again, I would be sure to take the image in a studio with the correct lighting.

Developing my curiousity of my great grandfather’s snookering success, I researched the mechanics club online which is when I found this website: http://search3.openobjects.com/kb5/jersey/directory/service.page?id=k81-QexVo6k

This website provided minimal information but I was able to find opening times. So I visited the club and unfortunately, it was not open. The building also looked like it needed renovation so perhaps it is closed temporarily. However, I did take some pictures of the outside building.