Since the summer of 2019 A-Level Photography Students at Hautlieu School have been working on an extensive programme of study in their final year exploring Jersey’s Liberation and Occupation history in collaboration with Société Jersiaise, Jersey Heritage, Channel Island Occupation Society, Jersey War Tunnels, Bureau des Îles Anglo-Normandes and post-graduate students from École Européenne Supérieure d’art de Bretagne in Rennes with funding from Liberation 75. Students were challenged with responding to personal stories told by islanders experiencing the German Occupation first-hand and finding inspiration by looking through images, documents and objects held in various collections in Jersey’s public archives, producing a series of individual creative outcomes such as montages, photo-zines and collectively construct a visual narrative presented as a newspaper supplement printed and distributed by Jersey Evening Post on Friday 24 April 2020.

The Liberation vs Occupation project began partly as a response to 75 years of celebrating freedom in Jersey from the German Occupation in 1940-45. Sadly, islanders will not be able to commemorate this landmark event as initially planned and it is hoped that this newspaper and joint exhibition between Jersey and French students will in some small way act as catalyst for remembering those years of hardship and subsequent joy when Churchill’s now famous speech was broadcast on the 8 May 1945 with the endearing words ‘our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today’.

The programme of study began on the 4 June at the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive where students took inspiration from a presentation by Patrick Cahill, Photo-Archivist and looked through some of the historical collections held in the photo-archive pertaining to the German Occupation of Jersey in 1940-45. In September students explored the landscape of German fortifications around the coastline of Jersey with specific visits to bunkers, such as Battery Moltke at Les Landes and Battery Lothringen at Noirmoint Point. Further visits followed to Jersey War Tunnels and Jersey Archive to research public records and learn more about life in the island during the Occupation.

Personal stories and memories from islanders, Bob Le Seur, Hedley Hinault, Joyce De La Haye and Joan Tapley, experiencing the German Occupation first-hand were recounted to students in a series of workshops, that included portrait sessions in the photographic studio at Hautlieu School and photographing objects from 1940-45 held in the Occupation collection at Jersey Heritage. Students have interpreted how the themes of Liberation and Occupation relates to them as teenagers growing up in the 21st century and the combined outcome of their studies can be seen on the pages of this newspaper, and in a joint exhibition Bunker Archaeology 2020 with postgraduate students from École Européenne Supérieure d’art de Bretagne (EESAB) originally to be held at the Berni Gallery, Jersey Arts Centre 6 -30 May 2020, now postponed due to Covid-19.

The Bailiff Timothy Le Cocq, who has written a foreword in the newspaper expressed his delight with how this collaboration has played a wider role in cultural diplomacy by; ‘allowing Rennes-based Masters students to work with students from Hautlieu on a project that has helped to spread the message of our important history, shared heritage and bringing communities closer together.’ 

Photographer and teacher Martin Toft who led this project, commented: ‘Every student involved in this project engaged passionately in the subject of the German Occupation of Jersey and the images presented here in this newspaper are only a fragment of the enormous amount of work that each student has produced. It provides a fascinating insight into how young people have used the language of photography to explore and interpret events which happened many years ago.’

Here is a video browser of the Liberation Newspaper printed and distributed islandwide by Jersey Evening Post. 

Zines: The editing and sequencing of this newspaper was derived from a number of photo-zines produced by A-Level photography students at Hautlieu School.

Evaluation:

To evaluate, the overall outcome of the 48 page newspaper supplement has come together nicely and is a great way of celebrating Jersey’s 75th year of liberation. As a collective, we all selected our top outcomes and managed to sequence the photographs together in order to portray a celebrating narrative while exploring personal stories, landscapes and objects to do with the occupation of Jersey. The exhibition that was meant to go on would have also showcased our individual zine and photo books we had created which would have complimented our group newspaper. Personally, having four of my images displayed, with one being a double page spread, showcases my high quality final outcomes and adds to the overall effect of the newspaper. I am really pleased with the way in which it has turned out, as it showcases all of the classes hard work and effort and is a great outcome which will be nice to look back on in years to come.

Below is the link to view an online version of my photo book ‘Prejudice’

https://www.blurb.com/books/9951904-prejudice/8566143/9f8b8fa85952f95faa4a87626fd91dbcfebd9507

These are the images I have chosen to get printed off and framed. I have chosen 2 images from a photo shoot with Bob Le Sueur, 5 from the bunker project, 11 from my personal study, and 7 from various object photo shoots. I have organised them into A3, A4 and A5 folders for easier printing, but have taken the screenshot before doing so in order for all the images to be visible.

This is the final layout of my photo book. I have made small changes in order to accommodate the amount of text i have placed in, but other than that there have been no major changes since the last blog post.

This is the layout of my book once I have placed in my essay and all other text. I have chosen to dispurse my essay throughout my book, rather than putting the whole essay at the end.

How does fashion shape social identities?

“Once you have a person in front of you that oozes this kind of energy, by dressing them up or allowing them to wear their own styles, the strength of their personality instantly comes out.” (Iordan 2015)

As Hassan Hajjaj says in the above quote, people’s styles and clothing play a substantial part in expressing their personality. And if you allow them to wear what they’re comfortable in their personality does instantly shine through. This also plays a large role in social identity; the way we dress affects both how we view ourselves, as well as how others view us, and possibly judge us on the way we dress. In this personal project I will focus on exploring social identity and how it is shown/expressed through fashion. I will do this mainly through portrait photography and more specifically full body shots; implementing the style of Hassan Hajjaj into my work. I will do this by trying to capture the subject’s personality and strengths through their style and body language, I will also implement the same contrasting bold colours into my work. I will also try break fashion stereotypes such as in Hassan Hajjaj’s ‘Kesh Angels’ portrait series where he photographs the Kesh Angles biker group who wear Hijabs and ride around the city, in most places in the area this is either looked down upon or illegal. I will also try implement close-up portraiture into this project, in the style of Rankin who heavily focuses on face and top 1/3 portraits. Rankin focuses a considerable amount on social identity throughout his work which I will take inspiration from in my project. This includes projects such as “Selfie Harm” (Hosie 2019) project; where Rankin took portraits of teens and gave them 15 minutes to edit their portraits to a ‘social media ready’ standard. I will also possibly include elements of tableaux photography in my project, I will try use this to help exaggerate the above mentioned themes through acting, in hopes of achieving an image which shows exaggerated levels of confidence, or the lack of it. I will use this to show the contrast of how fashion can affect us mentally.

Throughout my personal study I will explore specific fashion items which society views as valuable or desirable, as well as comparing them to fashion items which have been similarly desirable throughout history. It is very interesting to look at the most desirable fashion items throughout history as they have remained without change for the most part. In the Victorian period the most desirable fashion items were most commonly jewelry, and more specifically earrings, necklaces and rings. Some other desirable items for men included side chains; which were long and very detailed, usually reaching lengths of over 60 inches. When compared to modern desirable items they are extremely similar, with there still being a very high interest and demand for for jewelry such as necklaces and earrings. The only differences are a shift in rarity of rings (as much cheaper rings are available today, starting at prices of around £1-2) and the way chains are worn. Although they did exist in the 19th century as previously mentioned, they are worn in a different way in modern times, as well as having a different meaning to what they did throughout history. However, all of these items still have the same base purpose, to establish individuality and show class. This shows how society and its views have barely progressed in the last 200 years or so, as the same items are still used to show social status, and although this has slightly evolved, we still use the same methods to express our social identity. And in certain aspects this has become worse, because as a society with value what the society thinks of us drastically more and to the point where it is unhealthy; even causing people to self harm or commit suicide because they don’t achieve the standards set out for them.

Many aspects of staged/tableaux photography aren’t supposed to represent or imitate real life, but take inspiration from real events or possibly issues and build on them, with varying amounts of abstract ideas and elements. These abstract elements are often used as tools to help communicate ideas across to the audience. Exaggerating an issue to a scale much larger than it is in reality can help make it stand out more, and therefore make the audience take it into account more. As an example, in my book ‘Prejudice’ the person who fell victim to knife crime ended up being the one convicted due to him wearing darker clothing, and having a more menacing appearance (large black puffer jacket), compared to the attacker who was wearing a brightly coloured hoodie, which makes him perceived as more innocent and harmless. This scenario would obviously never happen in the real world as firstly the victim would be dead after the assault, but he would also definitely not be convicted purely as a result of what he was wearing. But creating a more extreme scenario helps get the message of how our clothing affects how we are treated and perceived much more clearly than if they were only subtle hints, and not the main reason for his conviction. Tableaux images such as these can also raise subconscious awareness of issues. Such as the inclusion of knife crime in my book which aims to raise awareness of knife crime, without explicitly mentioning it. I chose to implement this as knife crime has “reached an unprecedented high”(Badshah 2019) this year, amassing “44,076 knife offences”(Badshah 2019) in the past 12 months. With the English and Welsh combined population being around 56 million; nearly 1% (1 in 100) of the whole population has fallen a victim to knife crime this year alone.

In my response I implemented a similar tableaux nature to Hassan Hajjaj’s work, with the models wearing the clothes which expressed them the best, and in which they felt the most comfortable. As a result of this they were all very confident in the photos, staring straight down the lens with open and sometimes intimidating body language. However, I added a darker twist to all the photo shoots by making all the images grungy and darker; still containing vibrant colours, but taken at night and with the negative space being filled with darkness. This is because I wanted to discretely tell a story about discrimination due to clothing. This is something in turn inspired by Rankin; he often does projects based around raising awareness for certain subjects, them often being taboo subjects.

I have used a bright flash in all the photos to help capture all the colours in the scene as the shoots took place at night. I also applied exposure, offset, and gamma correction filters in order to make the images consistently brighter and appear more vibrant, i have also occasionally applied vibrance and contrast filters to help achieve this. I have also taken the large majority of photos from a lower angle, looking up at the models, in order to further emphasize their confidence and presence by literally making them appear larger, and almost towering over the camera. I have once again done all this in order to achieve a style similar to Hassan Hajjaj, despite the photos being darker due to their setting. I have also applied black bars to the majority of my images, this is in order to keep the models anonymous. It isn’t due to their personal request, but instead it is about subtly questioning the ideas of identity. It keeps all of their identities hidden, yet they are all still easily recognizable throughout the sets of images due to their clothing.

I have used the previously mentioned style for exactly half of my book ‘Prejudice’. For the second half of the book I wanted to create a story with my responses, and I have produced images which resemble CCTV footage with heat mapping. It is the story of discrimination and prejudice due to clothing and appearance which I have previously mentioned. The elements of the images with a heat map filter applied are the focal points of the images, with the heat mapping diverting the viewer’s attention to them. The heat mapping also varies from warm tones (red, yellow, green) to cold tones (blue, navy, purple). This is done to signify the shift of the people in the photos becoming cold, heartless, inside. a subtle hint to how knife crime can change a person.

To conclude, fashion can drastically change someone’s social identity, and can especially affect how someone is judged upon first impressions. It can also majorly affect how someone is treated, purely based on their appearance. Throughout my responses I have taken inspiration from two very different photographers, Rankin usually applying a deeper significance to his images and working with usually taboo subjects, and Hassan Hajjaj who normally expresses the confidence and rebellion within people instead. However they both achieve the same goal, showing how different and unique everyone is, and often also showing how much fashion can change this identity.

Finally, I feel like it is extremely important to raise awareness about this issue, how society needs to change and retain from judging people based on their appearance, and treat them all equally regardless.

Bibliography:

Marina Iordan (July 15 2015) Karima: A Day In The Life Of A Henna Girl – Interview with Hassan Hajjaj Art Radar Dec 13 2019 https://artradarjournal.com/2015/07/15/karima-interview-with-hassan-hajjaj/

Rachel Hosie (February 5 2019) A photographer asked teenagers to edit their photos until they thought they looked ‘social media ready,’ and the results are shocking Insider: New York City https://www.insider.com/selfie-harm-photo-series-rankin-asks-teens-to-edit-photos-until-social-media-ready-2019-2 Dec 13 2019

Nadeem Badshah (October 17 2019) Knife crime hits record high in England and Wales The Guardian: London https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/17/knife-hits-new-record-high-in-england-and-wales

This is the layout of my photo book without any text (with the exception of the front cover and spine)

This is a series of images from my second photo shoot, which I have re-edited in a drastically different way. They have kept the visual noise and black bars, however they have now had black & white filters applied, with gradient overlays in the center points of the images, which was designed to look like a heat map/infrared camera.

I want my book to have a more grunge aesthetic, but not to the point of being messy. I am thinking of using matte rather than glossy pages to help achieve this feel, using paper with a matte finish will also work well with the images within the book; as they are all very textured with added visual noise.

I am currently thinking of using a 10×8 in (25x20cm) size book, which is a standard landscape size. although I will include vertically orientated images in the book as well. I will most likely crop some images to make them square. I am also thinking of using an image wrap hardcover for the book.

As the book is about how fashion changes how a person can be viewed or treated, I am thinking of titling the book ‘prejudice’. However I am also considering other options, one of which is a less serious title: “Inside I’m crying, but outside I’m playing the Kazoo”.

The structure of the book will be a story told in pictures, but in reverse. A story which when simplified is about a man who gets attacked on the street, but he ends up being persecuted and punished due to wearing the more ‘thug’ looking clothes. It is not intended to be a realistic story, but more to send a message. So the book will start with him being persecuted, and end with him moments before being attacked.

The layout of the book will consist of two configurations; either each double-page spread will contain two full size images, or an image on one page and text on the other.

I will end the book with a conclusion of the story at the end, along with my essay.

Describing my book in 3 words:

Fashion, Judgement, Society

Describing my book in a sentence:

Exploring how judgemental society is, and how fashion can affect that.

Describing my book in a paragraph:

Modern society and the people within it are extremely quick to judge, whether that be a person or an event. Fashion, i.e. how someone dresses can drastically affect how they are viewed or treated.