Francis Foot was born in 1885 to the parents Francois Foot and Louisa Hunt. His father Francois was a china and glass dealer in Dumaresq street, at a time when the area was one of the more affluent in St Helier. His son started working as a gas fitter, however he soon became interested in photography and realised he could make a living from this area.

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.

Many of his photographs were portraits of his family, however some were published as postcards.

Stanley’s son John was the one who gave the collection of the glass plates and other photographic material, which has been gathering dust since his grandfather’s death to La Societe Jersiaise.

Francis Foot also took 16mm black and white cine films, some of which are held by the Jersey Archive. These show events such as aircraft landing, a visit by HMS Sheffield, cattle shows, Battle of Flowers at Springfield and the liberation and visit soon after of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

Visual

In this image you can see three children in the middle of the image, with one sitting down in a chair and the other two standing, all looking into the camera. They’re all dressed in clothes fit for that time era, and what they’re wearing suggest that they come from at least a middle class family. The image itself was taken in black and white, and it’s a little bit blurry suggesting that a lower shutter speed was used. The arrangement of where the children stood looks like it was thought out, with the tallest child sitting down on a chair to appear the same height as the middle boy, and it seems to go in descending order of height from left to right. The background with the long lane behind the children is blurry enough so it doesn’t steal the viewer’s attention from the children, but solid enough so you can take in the view around them.

Technical

The lighting used in this image seems to be a natural lighting due to the fact that they are outside. The shutter speed used was probably low as the image seems a little blurry from where the children were moving a little bit. The image seems a little bit over exposed as the white clothes worn by the young boys blend in with the white pathway behind them.

Contextual

These children are the children of Francis Foot. At this time, he and his wife Margaret Vernon only had three children, who are all pictured in this image, named George , Stanley and Dora. This was before they had their fourth child, Reg. At the time of this image, George was 5, Stanley was 4 and Dora was 2. Reg was born a year after this image was taken, in 1920.