The Photographic Archive of the Société Jersiaise contains over 80,000 images dating from the mid-1840s to the present day and is the principal Jersey collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century photography. The archive holds examples of work by important nineteenth century photographers such as William Collie, Charles Hugo, Thomas Sutton and Henry Mullins.  The collection incorporates late nineteenth century studio collections of negatives by Jersey based photographers such as Ernest Baudoux, Albert Smith and Clarence Ouless. The archive contains over 15,000 portraits of identified people and views of every bay. Together the collection offers detailed visual record of Jersey and Channel Islands history and an excellent representation of technical and aesthetic developments throughout the photographic era.

Photography arrived in Jersey on 9th May 1840 just nine months after it had been first publicized in the urban centres of England and France.   Following technical developments in the 1850s, by the boom period for Victorian photography in the 1860s the number of photographic studios in St Helier peaked at twenty-one. The Société Jersiaise was formed in 1873 but only realised its aim of opening a museum in 1877. In 1992 the Photographic Archive Department was established to implement appropriate collections management policies, to improve storage conditions and to catalogue the collection to increase access so that the public would be able to see their work.

Albert Smith

Albert Smith is the best known and probably the most prolific of Jersey’s early photographers, although a significant number of pictures credited to Smith, specifically the photographs used for his post cards, were not taken by him, but by employees or by Ernest Baudoux, whose business he acquired when he arrived in Jersey from London.

Smith started in business in Jersey in 1892 from premises at 59 New Street, which he kept until 1931. He also had outlets at 13 Beresford Street and 45 Bath Street from 1899 to 1907, but he closed these and opened an outlet at 3 Broad Street, which also continued to operate until 1931.

Thousands of his images survive as glass plate negatives and subjects include studio portraits and portraits of cattle. Many of his views were sold as postcards. Nearly 2000 of Smith’s photographs can be seen online in the photographic archive of la Societe Jersiase, out of a total of nearly 3,300 of his photographs held in the archive.

His portfolio of photographs shows the extreme diversity of Albert Smith’s work. Even though not all of the photographs may have been taken by him, they are all attributed to his business. Many are commercial, but others show a fascinating documentary of life in Jersey in the late 19th and early 20th century.  Smith was not predominantly a portraitist even though lots of his photographs show this, he preferred to work outside photographing groups on carriage and charabanc outings.

Smith published a book in about 1910 named ‘102 Views of Jersey and the Channel Islands‘, which includes pictures of early Battles of Flowers, and a selection of pictures of Guernsey.

I chose to research Albert Smith as in my shoot on Tuesday 19th June, I would like to be able to focus on environmental photographs as Smith does and would also like to take pictures of the architecture such as Victoria College to create an old-fashioned feel. Albert Smith’s diversity in photographs is what mainly appealed to me.

Analysis of an Albert Smith Photograph

In this photograph by Albert Smith, it appears that a natural lighting was used to show the natural shadows and contrast in this environmental portrait.  This ensures the photo shows how Jersey really looked in the earlier stages.  A deep depth of field will have been used for this photograph as the whole of the photograph is in focus – there is no blurring for effect, it is all kept completely natural.  A shutter speed of around 1/60 will have been used along with a fairly low ISO of 200-800. This is because the quick shutter speed ensures no movement blurs in the photograph whilst the ISO ensures that the photograph is bright enough to show the subjects. The photograph has a warm orange tinge to it, reminding the viewer that it is a very old photograph.

There is no colour in this photograph as it was taken between 1892 – 1931, this rustic feel in the photographs creates a natural sense to show that is documentary photography. There is a wide tonal range in this photograph as the bright white sachets on the officers contrast with their black uniforms to create different tones. The image has a 3D setting due to the positioning of the subjects – the officer on the chair is clearly in front of the cannon with the other two officers standing behind him. The old faded effect partly takes away from the 3D effect due to the faded contrast and shadows.

This environmental photograph shows three RJA officers in the work environment posed for a photograph. This documents what St. Helier was like before all of the land reclamation and development and also shows what the people were like through the choice of hair styles and facial hair. Smith would take lots of portrait photographs similar to this showing groups of St. Helier residents in their work environment or natural habitat.

I think that when Smith was taking all of these portraits and landscape photographs he was focusing on experimenting on what he could do photography as it was relatively new at the time. Smith showed us the development of photography and St. Helier along with the residents in it. Whether Smith realised it or not, he documented St. Helier for future use and gave us an insight into early photography with the purpose of showing the different views and areas of Jersey.

Michelle Sank

Michelle Sank was the ‘Archisle: The Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme Photographer in Residence 2013’. Her project, ‘Insula’ presents a series of photographs by Sank responding to Jersey culture, community and landscape.

Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa and currently lives in the U.K. She describes herself as a ‘social demographic’ photographer – she says ‘My Practice is concerned with the notion of encountering, collecting, and re-telling. I am interested in creating sociological landscapes, interplays of human form and location that are significant in their visual, cultural and psychological nuances. I see my work as a celebration of the constantly changing moments and phases in life.’ Her work encompasses issues around social and cultural diversity.

In 2009 Sank undertook a three month residency in Aberystwyth, South Wales where she produced work that formed the exhibition and book called ‘The Submerged’ in 2011. The project took its title from parts of an ancient forest buried under the sands of Cardigan Bay which surface after stormy weather. These fragmentary boughs
symbolise occasions when people or places seize Sank’s attention to be photographed.

I chose to study Michelle Sank as her photographs contrast but also relate with Albert Smith’s in the sense that they document people but they are different styles of portraiture. This will allow me to produce a diverse set of photographs when I have a shoot in town.

Analysis of a Michelle Sank Photograph

In this Michelle Sank photograph, natural lighting was used to allow a natural environmental feel to the photograph due to the natural shadows and contrast. A deep depth of field appears to have been used as the whole of the photograph is in focus which helps to convey the idea that this is more of a documentary photograph than a commercial one. A shutter speed of 1/40-1/100 will have been used to capture this photograph along with a low ISO of 100 or 200 in order to allow enough light to enter the camera lens whilst keeping the quality as high as possible. There is contrast in the photograph between the feel of a warm day and the cold blue of the models’ outfits.

There are very vibrant colours in this photograph that contrast with eachother, such as the bright orange hair of the subjects and their deep blue jackets. There is not a massive range of tones within the photograph as it is generally a fairly light and summery photograph. The light reflecting off of the leather jackets creates a texture within the photograph, creating a more interesting subject. This use of texture and shadows helps to create a more 3D and realistic feel. The two subjects have been placed side by side to show the differences and similarities between the two.

History Of St. Helier

It is thought that the site of St Helier was settled at the time of the Roman control of Gaul.

The medieval writings of Helier, who is the patron saint of St. Helier, suggest a picture of a small fishing village on the dunes between the marshy land behind and the high-water mark.

Currently, the St. Helier parish church is some distance from the sea but at the time of its original construction it was on the edge of the dunes at the closest practical point to the offshore island called the Hermitage (where Helier was supposedly martyred). Before land reclamation and port construction started, boats could be tied up to the churchyard wall on the seaward side.

An abbey of St Helier was founded in 1155 on L’Islet, which was an island that becomes submerged at high tide, adjacent to the Hermitage. The site of the abbey was fortified to create the Elizabeth Castle that replaced Mont Orgueil as the Island’s major fortress.

As centuries moved on, St. Helier constantly expanded from the string of houses and shops that it was in the 18th century through building structures such as the harbour and the tunnel in 1960s. Now that St. Helier has reclaimed the land that was planned, they are now focusing on filling all of the empty plots on the parish to create a busy and modern environment.

My Area Of Focus

On Tuesday 19th June I will be photographing the area shown in orange on the map at the top of this post. This area of town contains lots of history and landmarks which will be interesting to capture photographs of.  Some points of interest that I will be looking at is the Victoria College due to the architecture of it and the history behind it, and lots of local businesses such as the Mayfair hotel in order to capture environmental portraits of the people of St. Helier as archival-photographers such as Albert Smith did in the earlier stages of St. Helier

Currently St Helier is seen to be a pivotal area for tourism due to the historical significance seen through the architecture and many monuments within jersey.However,I think the future of St Helier should be surrounding a modernisation of the area and the belief that new types of models and a variety of buildings will increase the heightened market for finance and so allowing Jersey to move past the history and become more prevalent when coming to current society and the needs of expansion and futuristic development. Modern buildings such as high build buildings are needed in order to move St Helier from being a town into a more city oriented landscape,However this does not mean the demolishing of historical buildings but enhances their presence when seen and also forms a joint society of future and past to show a movement of cultures and diversity being capable within Jersey. This would also benefit jersey as tourism is not the main centred interest anymore as finance is the most important as this is where the money for funding is found to benefit the government and future advancements surrounding jersey itself. St Helier needs to move forward,150 years ago citizens of St Helier would have said to keep jersey how it is but that isn’t possible and will not benefit their needs as a society in the future.The mordenisation would benefit the younger generation as it gives them more sources for growth wihtin their world sectors, allows the government to fund university fees, and is the foregrounding of many possible future job oppitunities.For my project I Would want to purpose more Morden enhancements and capture of the property development of new builings and general progression of St Helier.(or to study developments and companies which are already supporting and creating these new buildings)

However with these developments we cannot be ignorant to the fact they will not directly benefit the citizens of St Helier and consequently not address their voices and needs.To address this the new buildings should not be purely concentrated on finance but also a sense of community. Not enough races are highlighted through St Helier,so advertising communities and a sense of home might allow enhanced relationships within different community sectors and more people to want to live within jersey.This could be community shared areas such as the theater,waterfront,fort regnant or other areas of importance to jersey. Addtionally community clubs within St helier where people of all ages have an ability to talk among each other about there loves and doubts with St Helier.All the current communities wihtin St Helier are segregated wihtin specific races,such as cheap side,there needs to be more resources of morden builings and a sense of communities for the public to voice what they want within St Helier. Once again there are sources of entertainment within jersey but they are not advertised to the extent to which they should,but a mordenistaion and re vamp will allow poeple to view each hitorical or entertainment site in a new light.  Modernization could just be the re-use of old buildings or a revamp and to continue to use an area that has been lost by history.The large progress and a new jersey future invests in different Morden forms current within the rest of the western world.