On the 19th of June I will be going into town to photograph the orange area of the above map of St. Helier.  This area contains sites such as Victoria College and the Mayfair hotel. I will be taking inspiration from Michelle Sank and Albert Smith in my shoot in the sense that I will be asking residents and workers of this area to pose in their natural environment. I will also be looking at capturing photographs of architecture of places similar to Victoria College as this is something that Albert Smith did. I hope to catch people in their natural environment whilst creating an old-fashioned feel to the photographs through editing and subjects within the photographs. I plan to go into different shops and businesses to photograph subjects as they are without any preparation and hopefully the inspiration from Smith and Sank will come through in my final outcomes.

Points of Interest

Influences on My Shoot

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.