Francis Foot was born in 1885 as a only child to this parents,Francois Foot (1847-1918) and Louisa Hunt (1843-1934). His father was a china and Glass dealer in Dumaresq Street, at a time when the area was one of the more affluent in St Helier. Francis’ first job was as a gas fitter, but he soon became fascinated by photography and the early phonographs and gramophone records and realised that he could earn a living from them.

The family took on a second shop in Pitt Street, where Francis worked as a photographer, while his father and mother sold gramophones, records and other wares in Dumaresq Street. After his father’s death, Francis took over the business in Pitt Street. He married Margaret Vernon shortly before the First World War and the couple had four children, George (1914- ), Stanley (1915- ), Dora (1917- ) and Reg (1920- ).

The Foot family in their car ….

Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She left there in 1978 and has been living and working in England since 1987. Her work encompasses issues about social and cultural diversity and the challenges within.

The particular project of hers which features Jersey is called ‘Insula’, she srrived April 2013 to start her six month residency with Archisle. In the archive it lacked late twentieth century imagery so she set out to fill that space by capturing photos. She said she found it challenging as Jersey had a peculair British- Norman cultural identity and she needed to include that as well as Jersey’s uniqueness. ‘Insula’ is Latin, it simply means island in English, the projects main aim was to create a narrative for our island but a more modern story to provide evidende of what Jersey was like in the twentieth century.

Analysis

This image taken by Francis Foot features his wife and two children in a Jersey wood, possibly St Catherine’s. Both Margaret and George are taking direct eye contact with the camera, both expressing minimal emotion which creates an eerie look. Whereas young Dora is in candid and is blurred, this could be because she is young and doesn’t understand the concept of taking a photo or Foot may have purposely wanted this effect as again it creates a sinister feel as her head is dis-morphed and she almost looks like a ghost. All photos of Francis are in black and white because he had no assess to colour in his lifespan. This creates a sense of delicacy to the images as they appear to look fragile due to the lack of camera quality and colour. The photo is well exposed with the dark trees at the front alongside the light background, they work in harmony adding different textures. The black clothing the mother is wearing contrasts nicely with the young children, its almost symbolic of the innocence of the children and how the colour white has connotations of purity. A neutral tone is created through the use of back and white which works together with the neutral expressions on their faces. Foot used natural lighting in this image solely daylight from the sun. It looks as though they have been placed in this positioning by Foot because the young boy looks unnaturally smart in the way his hands are put behind his back and how he had perfect posture. Also the way the mother is placed in the middle creates a pyramid shape which suggest her role in the family how she is an authority figure to her children. There is a prominent rule of thirds which is displayed via the three people, the background is the vegetation and the foreground is the main focal point of the photo which is the family.

This image by Michelle Sank in some ways is similar to foots as it features relatives which are both making direct eye with the camera. However in this image the background is equally as important as the two girls as it shows a wide shot of Harve de Pas. The project Sank created of Archisle was all about capturing the people of Jersey in Jersey, whereas Foot was just taking portraits. Both girls have neutral facial expressions, also they both wear very similar outfits and take up the same stance. This image clearly displays culture of it’s time for instance it is in colour, the girls are wearing clothes of a modern trend, the hotel and houses behind look well kept. There is a light tone to the photo and it appears to have been taken with just natural daylight, this could have been challenging to get a good exposure as it was clearly a very bright day judging the squints on their faces and the lack of clouds in the background. The twins stand in the foreground and the hotels and houses are placed in the background but both share focal point.