From occupation to liberation

On June 30th 1940, the Channel Islands went to a massive change when Nazi German soldiers came to the island, with an imminent task. To take over and occupy.

With the occupation of the Island happening one week after Jersey was demilitarized for the safety of the islanders, to show that the locals were not a threat. The start to the beginning of the occupation began with Operation ‘Green Arrow’ with the German Air Force doing a fly by, bombing farmers trucks and containers mistaking them for military personnel carriers.

Under this period of occupation, the islanders of Jersey saw a massive transition from freedom and liberty, to a changed world, with curfew hours a changed currency and rationed meals. Jersey became an isolated place, with the Germans re-militarizing it. The island seemed to get smaller, with the German soldiers placing barbed wire along the cliff paths and setting mines the small island became a fortress.

With this 45 square mile fortress just off the coast of France and only 273 miles away from the South of England, Hitler demanded that the island was to be fortified. Thousands of Slave workers from countries which had already been taken over, Russia, Poland and France. The slave workers were forced to work tirelessly to make, the anti tank sea walls, Bunkers, Gun placements and railway systems. Some workers were killed in the process from exhaustion, there have been stories of tired workers falling into area which were getting cemented and being buried alive. The fortifications which were made, was a big plan for Hitler’s ‘Atlantic Wall’. Some of this can still be seen around the island today, especially around St. Ouens.

With all radio, and devices which could be used to gather information from outside of the island was banned and confiscated by the Germans, the islanders created crystal radio sets, and would hide them in their houses, wishing for the day that the war would be declared over.

By the 7th May 1945, the German army had surrendered and the end of the war in Europe had been announced. Much to the Islanders delight, with the week leading up to the 6th of May, news had been spread that Hitlers fall in Berlin had begun.

When the Island had been declared liberated, it seemed that the whole island had gathered in town to throw a party and celebrate. When the army came to liberate the islanders, town was lit with smiles and laughter and delight, handshakes and hugs were exchanged between everyone. The HMS Bulldog landed in Jersey and delivered extra rations for everyone to enjoy.

At 3.40 pm the Union Jack was suspended from the balcony of the Pomme d’Or hotel, and to this day when we celebrate Liberation, at the same time on the same balcony, a Union Jack flag is suspended.

Nowadays we carry archives in our pockets without thinking of their importance? Why do we keep them on a drive we rarely look through if ‘they mean so much to us’. Archives historically are used for storing images and documents that can teach present and future generations about lifestyles and families. David Bates, a theorist, referred to this by saying: ‘…no longer are photogenic archives merely filled with dusty boxes…’ since ‘digitisation of photographic images online has also generated new networks’. By storing images on a phone or laptop does make photography more accessible to a global demographic, but does this therefore defeat the idea of capturing the importance of moments.

Archives are used for research, however since these archival images are ageing, they can be reviewed and give an impression of living in the past. Useful for photographers when compiling research to be able to have the physical imagery to hold and look at in detail. This can help identify contrasts and similarities within modern and dated photography.

Archives play the important role of identifying past mistakes that can be prevented from repeating themselves using our knowledge from the pre-occured. Nostalgia now playing a big part in society with people reverting back previous fashion,photography and arts, with trends returning due to their pure admiration, for example, film photography becoming a lot more accesible and mainstream for people to fit this new found ‘aesthetic’. Archives take value in preserving the loved to be again loved by a relative or student wanting to expand their vast knowledge.

Société Jersiaise, a local archive that contains many images and documents from jersey’s past. This specific archive is very important as it allows the general public familiarise themselves with either local or personal history. Personal history records including birth/death certificates, marriage registration records, house agreement documents and many more hidden treasures you can relate your roots back to.

Personally, Archives has broadened my horizons of new ways to collect and gather resources for personal and academic use. Archives have shown me the responsibility we all have to leave behind a legacy and journey that future generations could benefit from, and taught me to further care for my general and editorial photographs so generations to come have something to reflect and appreciate.

Artist Research: Dale Konstanz

Dale Konstanz created many zines which have gained him recognition throughout the years, one of the most famous being ‘Concrete Jungle’. This title is very contrasting in the way that one is man made while the other is a natural growth which is helping to grow interest. The front cover for this zine is semi-transparent which is helping to make the writing very clear.

Mood board for Concrete Jungle

Format/presentation- This zine is presented as an A5 portrait booklet with images which are mostly landscape and cross the whole page. This shows the book as being very compact.

Design/layout- The layout of this zine includes all the images being full blead onto two pages which is showing a clear presentation of the images and allows for details to be seen.

Narrative/ visual concept- The concept of this zine is around the area of ‘concrete jungles’ surrounded by natural elements.

Title/cover page- The title for this zine is very attractive. The transparent cover is allowing for both an image and the title to be seen, the title being presented in simple font. I’m a fan of this technique as it is giving a full insight to what the book will be about.

OCCUPATION

LIBERATION

ZINE AND BOOK MAKING

MOOD BOARD

As a class we were presented with a large array of different types of zines and newspaper in which we got to explore and have a closer look at, the above images in my mood board were the main ones that stood that i have the most interest in- possibly help inspire me when creating my own zine/newspaper. These included zines produced by publishers working with photographers, for example Cafe Royal a publishing team creates a regular zine working along side many different photographers. What makes the Cafe Royal zines so iconic, is the consistent format and layout of the front cover which helps people viewing the zine remember the cover next time they see another one.

When looking at at the different types of zines it was clear that there are many different types and style that can be created and produced, making each piece unique in its own way. For example, size, format, design, layout, orientation, rhythm, title, cover etc. This will all be important areas that i will need to consider when producing my own as these are all key visual concepts which will potentially make or break my own zines/newspaper.

On the 4th of June we attended the photographic archive of the Société Jersiaise, where we were introduced to our new A2 project that we will be concentrating on for the rest of the present term and a large majority of Year 13. The topic tile being ‘The Occupation’.

The the photographic archive of the Société Jersiaise which consists of around 80,000 photos/images dating all the way back to the mid-1840s. This includes many different collection from different times periods, different parts of history, different parishes etc. Providing a true representation and understanding of what Jersey used to be like in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The photographic archive of the Société Jersiaise was founded all the way back in 1873, including the founding objectives; the creation of a museum and library. The Société Jersiais opened its museum in 1877, with the practice and collecting of photographs already identified as priorities, these activities were continued as significant parts of the society’s museum and library. Some of the first photo to be produced arrived in Jersey on the 9th of May 1840 after just nine months in which the Société Jersiaise first publicized it in the urban centres of England and France.

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. Important twentieth century holdings include a major archive of over one thousand negatives by Percival Dunham Jersey’s first photo-journalist and an archive of one thousand three hundred German Occupation images compiled by Emile F Guiton (1879-1972) Honorary Curator of the Société Jersiaise Museum and founder of the Photographic Archive.  The archive from this current day presents over 15,000 portraits of identified people and views of the parishes, bays and valleys, alongside the collection contains details of visual records of the Jersey Channel islands history and a full representation of technical and aesthetic developments throughout the photographic era. Public access to the photographic archive was accepted in 1992, and now contains online catalog with over 36,000 images that can simply be searched via a link, as well as the images, negatives and original prints are also available. When we arrived at the archive we were presented with a series of different tasks, our first task was to look through some of the original photos and write down which ones stood out to us and why, having discussions on our tables about each of the images. To me this helped initial ideas flow and give me an overall better understanding of where I wanted to start with this new topic. Another one of the tasks that I found extremely relevant and helpful was the last one, where as a table we were given a large selection of images and had to place them in an order to tell a story, to me this really provided an understanding of how powerful images can be and lead me to want to investigate further in to the new topic.

Images from the photographic archive of the Société Jersiaise