The German occupation of the Jersey Channel Islands lasted pretty much the whole of WW2 from the 30th June to its liberation day which is celebrated as a bank holiday now on the 9th of May.

The German Occupation of Jersey began one week after the British government had demilitarized the island fearing for the safety of civilians should there be any conflict. The code name for this was “Operation Green Arrow” and the initial German Air Force reconnaissance flights mistake civilian farming lorries for troop carriers. On the 28th of June , the German Air Force, not knowing of the demilitarization, bomb and machine gun multiple sites on the island. The attacks killed ten people and wound many more. A few days later on the 1 of July 1940 General Richthofen, the Commander of the German Air Forces in Normandy, dropped an ultimatum from the air demanding the immediate surrender of the island. White flags and crosses were placed in prominent positions, as stipulated by the Germans, and later that day Jersey was occupied by air-borne troops under the command of Hauptmann Gussek.

Under the occupying forces, one of the greatest hardships was the lack of news from the mainland after the Germans had outlawed the use of radio sets. A number of individuals risked imprisonment by making their own sets and spreading frontline news. Horse drawn traffic became an increasingly regular mode of transport as petrol shortages became likely, and many vehicles were converted to use gas. The price of other transport rose, for instance bicycles became more expensive to buy, therefore the islanders became more restricted in terms of what they could and could not do. The German’s ordered all traffic to drive on the wrong side of the road. The island was also moved to Central European time. In the months following D-Day, as the Allies regained control of France, the source of supplies fueling the islands was now no longer available. 

Jersey became very isolated in the sense that shortages were hitting home, including not enough food and water to supply all islanders. This led to developments between the government and the Red Cross to send parcels of food. During autumn of 1944, fuel supplies were slim to none, electricity was on the grips of working leaving islanders desperate. It did not help the fact that medical supplies were also practically non- existent which therefore meant spreading of diseases rapidly. Never the less, The Red Cross Ship SS Vega arrived on the 30th of December to relive all those starving and dying islanders bringing them clothes, food, water and medical attention.

Hitler ordered the conversion of Jersey into an impregnable fortress. Thousands of slave workers from countries like Russia, Spain, France, Poland, and Algeria built hundreds of bunkers, anti-tank walls, railway systems, as well as many tunnel complexes. In late 1943 the Tunnel Complex Ho which to us is known as the Jersey War Tunnels in St. Lawrence was converted from an artillery workshop and barracks to an emergency casualty clearing station able to cope with up to 500 patients. All of the fortifications built around the island were part of Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall”. Today, traces of Jersey’s defenses and wartime occupations can be discovered across the island, especially in St. Ouen’s Bay.

By 7 May 1945, the German army had surrendered and the end of the war in Europe was announced. During the week leading up to 6 May islanders had been hearing reports of Hitler’s fall in Berlin by way of their hidden radios. In spite of the fact that the island was still officially under occupation, rumors began circulating of an imminent end to the war in Europe. However beforehand, on the 3rd of May a British Military operation ‘Nestegg’, with the objective of liberating the Channel Islands, was set in motion when a coordinated group of British Army units, collectively known as ‘Force 135’. Together with the units of Force 135, this first party consisted of a team of officials responsible for negotiating the terms of the Germans’ surrender. The front page of the Jersey Evening Post carried Jersey’s first confirmation of the Allies’ victory in Europe, and islanders were informed that Winston Churchill would broadcast the Nation’s first official announcement that afternoon at 3.00pm. Crowds began to gather at various locations to hear the announcement that would declare their liberation. Islanders waited patiently amidst the heavy air of expectation. 

Below are some pictures taken from google images of Jersey during the times of the occupation-

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Photographer Number 1

JONATHAN ANDREW

Originally from Manchester, in the UK Jonathan now lives and works in the diverse city of Amsterdam for over 20 years. The best way to describe him is a passionate award winning location photographer with many years of experience. He is also able to speak Dutch fluently. His work has incorporated shooting travel features for National Geographic, outdoor stories for adventure magazines or working on his own landscape photography. He shoots corporate and advertising assignments for major international companies as well as for smaller local businesses.

Next to his main assignments Andrew pursues personal projects, travelling to places like the Faroe Islands, Sweden and Scotland to work on landscape photography. He is also currently photographing ruined WW2 defences as part of an on going personal project which Is why he is a very useful photographer to study as, due to the reason this is a personal project for him, it means he holds potentially more of an active interest and therefore more detailed insight into the work. The project has created much interest in the international press and has featured in ‘The Daily Mail’, ‘Wired Magazine’, ‘Creative Review’ and numerous blogs and websites. Andrew was also a guest lecturer at the ‘Willem De Koning Acadamy’ in Rotterdam, teaching landscape photography to 2nd and 3rd year students.

Examples of his work:

Paul Virilio

Lynda Laird

When we went to society museum jersey we were introduced to may historical jersey artists. They were the leading forefront in jersey photography thought the occupation. I have chosen to do some background research on them and there photographic techniques to give me a better understanding of photography in this time period. So that my work can have a real feeling of the time period behind it.

Henry Mullins

Henry Mullins was part of the circle of photographic pioneers at the Royal Polytechnic Institute, Regent Street, London where the first photographic studio in Europe was opened in 1841. The first record of his professional practice is in Edinburgh in 1843. Mullins arrived in Guernsey in summer of 1847 and settled in Jersey the following year.Mullins’s productivity was matched by the technical standard of his work; qualities that are exemplified in the richness of the portraits of Victorian islanders preserved on the pages of his photograph albums. There are 9,861 images from Henry Mullins available to view online.Henry Mullins was by far the most prolific of the first generation of Jersey photographers in the mid-nineteenth century. He produced thousands of portraits of islanders between 1848 and 1873. While numerous photographic studios opened across the town of St Helier in the 1850s and 1860s Henry Mullins continued to be the photographer of choice for leading members of Jersey society and successful local and immigrant families.

William Collie

William Collie started his professional life as a portrait painter. He moved south and is recorded as living in St Helier, Jersey, before 1841, where he had a portrait business. He became one of the earliest photographers working in the Channel Islands, operating from Belmont House, St Helier, until 1872.William Collie was probably the first photographer to use Fox Talbot’s calotype process in Jersey and some of his previously unpublished photographs featured alongside those of Fox Talbot in an exhibition at the Musée Dorsay in Paris in 2008 of the first photographs taken on paper in Britain from 1840 to 1860.Collie was not merely a provincial studio portrait photographer. In the late 1840s he made a series of calotype portraits depicting ‘French and Jersey Market Women’ which were well received by the photography critic of the Art Union (1 June 1847). These studies were later exhibited at the London Great Exhibition of 1851.

Thomas Sutton

Thomas Sutton is a very important figure not only in the story of local photography, but also in wider photographic history. Sutton had a workshop and studio in St Brelade’s bay from 1848 until it burnt down in about 1854.A prolific author, Sutton wrote a number of books on the subject of photography, including the Dictionary of Photography in 1858. In 1859, Sutton developed the earliest panoramic camera with a wide-angle lens. In 1861, Sutton created the first single lens reflex camera. Sutton was the photographer for James’s Clark Maxwell pioneering 1861 demonstration of Color Photography. He also produced the first photographic publication of the island – “Souvenir de Jersey“, from which this image is taken.

Emile Guiton

Emile Guiton was born in Jersey in 1879.  He was a very active member of the Société Jersiaise – curator of the Museum, on the Executive Committee, joint honorary secretary and editor of the Annual Bulletin.  Emile Guiton was a keen amateur photographer and practised throughout his long life.  He experimented with colour at the beginning of the twentieth century in “Autochromes”.  His subjects include the recording of archaeological excavations and he was one of the few people in Jersey permitted to take photographs during the German Occupation of 1940 – 1945.  Emile Guiton also recognised very early on the importance of collecting photographs, both as a valuable social historic resource and as interesting artefacts, an archive of one thousand three hundred German Occupation images was compiled by Emile. That archive forms a large part of the images we will be exploring today.

As a class we went down to The Society Museum Jersey. Where we got to look through the archives of old images and find out a lot about historical photographers of jersey, who intern pushed forward the photography movement with in jersey Chanel islands.

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, in the form of the traveling photographer advertising demonstrations of the daguerreotype process.

Able to practice in the Channel Islands without concern for the patents that restricted the medium in the 1840s, amateur and professional photographers arrived from both sides of the English Channel.

The archive holds examples of work by important nineteenth century photographers. We were introduced to 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. Important twentieth century holdings include a major archive of over one thousand negatives by Percival Dunham Jersey’s first photo-journalist and the archive of Emile F Guiton (1879-1972) Honorary Curator of the Société Jersiaise Museum and founder of the Photographic Archive.

We were then set the Task of going into St Helier, to try recreate some of these images that we have been intently looking at and researching through. Furthermore creating our own that we then can edit into the black and white timely style. We were told to focus on photographing sights that have historical value e.g sights of heritage to do with ww2. So I chose to photograph the liberation statue in liberation square because it has a lot of historical connotations. Also i like the fact there is all the modern, bright buildings in the background juxtaposing the old iron structural sculpture and the weathered, rustic floor slabs. This creates interest and intrigue within the images making the statue a focal point. Also when i was walking i saw they jersey war tunnels bus and thought it was the perfect photo opportunity to contrast the urban with the historical vintage aspects of the bus. The vibrant red creates a focal point point within the image. The rigid structural points of the polls make the image have texture, a foreground and a background making the image more interesting to look at and The tourist map of jersey to add context to the image, almost like telling a story giving background information.

Fannie Escoulen is the independent curator of the ‘Elles x Paris Photo’ zine, and has been supported by the French Ministry of Culture. She graduated from the National School of Photography in Aries in 2000, and specializes in contemporary photography. She is known as an independent creator and has recently been the exhibition curator for Antoine D’Agata. Escoulen is also known for regularly collaborating with publishing houses o photographic projects ad carries out advisaory missions for companies.

I have chosen to study Escoulen as a photographer and curator because of the concept of using the alphabet to describe images in the ‘Elles X Paris Photo’. I think this is a great idea and could be very inventive to use during my bunker project. She also uses a lot of photo manipulation which is a concept which i am also debating on using, therefore i would like to look into her work in more detail.

Exhibition she has been involved in..

In her career, one of her main projects has been developing the zine ‘Elles X Paris Photo’. This is shown as an orange book which is an A5 size. This title is simply ‘ELLES X PARIS PHOTO’ in capital letters. The zine also includes a blurb which is written at the back page of the book.

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The first page of the book is an introduction to the zine which relates to the ‘Paris’ theme and as been written in French. This translates into.. ‘The women with their cameras go beyond all traditions and place themselves on a par with men in the new art they now practice with so much passion. It is as if for six thousand years, the famine has fed a latent talent. She waited, accumulates her orces. Our greatest painters were men, do not we have the right to wait for our most famous photographs to be women?’

During this book there is an alphabetical order to the book where each page shows the letter, an image to do with the letter, and one word which describes the image, as shown below.

In order to understand her concept of the book more, i have decided to analyse two images from this booklet.

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Technical analysis- Although we don’t know much about these images as there is no analysis on the interest, by looking at the images i can see that the images may have been taken in studio lighting because of the plain white background. This has been taken with a standard lense and with no depth of field used as the image is fully focused, this could also mean that a high shutter speed has been used in order to also create a fully focused image.

Visual analysis– As we can see all images have a plain white background and the images are centered in the middle of the page which a letter at the top of the page in the center, as well as a word which starts with that same letter underneath the image, again in the center.

Our trip was to Noirmont Point in which we explored and photographed the network of bunkers, Tony Pike also gave us a guided tour. There is an underground command bunker at this specific site, which was used by the Germans and is the only naval coastal artillery battery in the island and part of Hitler’s infamous Atlantic Wall. 170 men set camp on the headlands manning the bunkers, there were living quarters where they inhabited, but when not on duty they stayed at the Portlet Bay Hotel just around the corner. Before the occupation Noirmont was just nature, everything was made by the Germans up there. The states bought the land as an Island War Memorial in 1950 to remember those who fought and lost their lives in World War II.

We were given several opportunities to go around all bunkers as there were 4 main fortifications on the site, I edited some of my best photos on photoshop and lightroom. I made all my images black and white as I wanted them to seem as if they were taken during the occupation. The overcast weather on the day I feel worked very well with the concept of the occupation being such a depressing time for the people of Jersey and how the dull clouds mirror the atmosphere at the time as being gloomy. I wanted to get as much of the bunkers and the landscape together as they contrast well against each other with the man made structures and the delicate nature of the headland, it’s two extremes.