Historical Context – Societe Jersiaise

Henry Mullins wasa portrait photographer in the mid 1800’s who was based in Jersey, most of his work was doing family or solo portraits of the wealthy people who were in Jersey at the time.

Mullins started working at 230 Regent Street in London in the 1840s and moved to Jersey in July 1848, setting up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. Initially he was in partnership with a Mr Millward, about whom very little is known. By the following year he was working alone and he continued to work out of the same studio for another 26 years. After his death in 1883 20,000 images were collected and given to SJ.

This above image is a standard example of the style of images that Mullins would take with the subject in the front and a blank background, there is also heavy vignetting due to the technology he had and the equipment he was forced to use for the time. The subject is framed in the center of the image with the subject filling the frame and their head at the top. There is no context that I can find for this image but it is probably just a portrait that he had taken of him.

Contemporary approach – Archisle

About

Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She left there in 1978 and has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and to this end can be viewed as social documentary. Her work encompasses issues around social and cultural diversity.

Michelle’s project that was based on life in Jersey was called ‘insula’ which is latin for island, she wanted to photograph a range of things, including the economy, politics, community, work, leisure and environment.

The above image was taken at the Jersey premiere for a superman movie in 2013, there was large amounts of excitement within Jersey as the main actor was Jersey born. The image is set to have a full range of people within it ranging from old people to school children (joe) there is even another photographer within it.