Goudal is a French artist who has graduated from the royal college of art in 2010 with an MA is photography. She is currently living and working in Paris. She often works directly with landscapes, sometimes inserting photographic backdrops into a scene then photographing it. She is also known for making video work that is linked to the themes within her work.

“Fiction meets reality in her photographic work” – cercle

Observatoires

This series photographed between 2013 and 2014 shows science fictional architecture in landscapes. From the mood board it’s clear to see her documentary like images in this series almost look like an illusion. During this project she had used traditional photography and a physical form of manipulation since she created architectures out of paper and placed them in real landscapes. All of the images are in black and white which helps bring out all the dimensions of the figures. All the images are also taken on a landscape setting, which helps all the images in the series complement each other. This photographer is useful to look at since throughout my project i will be photographing bunkers and sites similar to the one sin her images, and looking at these photos has helped me to understand the importance of framing and angles when capturing these types of architecture.

Analysing image

Archives are places that contain many historical images and documents. They preserve things in order for the public to be able to view, compare and learn from the past. However, as time goes on archives are beginning to change in order to keep up with current technology. Theorist, David Bates, has referred to this by saying that “no longer are photographic archives merely filled with dusty piles of boxes” since “digitisation of photographic images online has also generated new networks”. This is a positive change as having digitized versions of images and documents, makes them more accessible to more people. However, this also means that people may not apricate it as more since there is minimal effort involved in acquiring these materials.

Archives can be used for research and knowledge. Since the images and documents are old, they can be analysed so people in the modern day have an insight to how the world would be. This is especially useful for research photographers since it allows them to be able to see physical images from years ago, which means it is possible to contrast and compare images from today. They’re also important to have since It is important to keep things that happened in the past alive in the modern age, as it is important that societies learn from their past errors, archives play an important role in this as they keep memories prom the past preserved in order for people to see.

Archives are repositories of past memories since they provide evidence that people can use to examine the past, in a way where they can understand it. For example, One of Jersey’s archive’, Societe Jersiarse, is a local archive that contains many images and documents of Jersey’s history. This specific archive is very important as it allows people to look at local history, images an documents. Without the preservation of local history, local knowledge may not have been as well known. Thanks to organisations such as this archive, local people can easily access information about their past which can help them to understand their heritage and understand why things are the way they are.

In archives I believe that photography can play a double role. This is because the images are used for both scientific and historical research and also for artistic purposes. Obviously, the images can be used to research society and the past so that societies are able to know more about the history of where they’re from so they’re able to be more culturally aware, but they can also be used for more creative outlooks. Our project for example, allows us to experience learning the whole historical knowledge however, it also allows us to express it in a more creative manor since we are not confined to solely research.

Louise Lawler is a photographer that is mentioned in David Bate’s text. She is a photographer who from the late 1970s onward, photographed many works of other artists. she focuses on photographing the environment surroundings of featured artworks. Her work demonstrates how images can be contextualised and decontextualised with and without their surrounding areas.

Another artist mentioned by Bates is Tracey Moffatt, specifically her series “something more”. This series depicts a desire to leave her rural life behind, for city life. As you can see from the series below, most of the images show the figures staring at the woman whom appears to be in deep thought in most of the images.

Looking at Archival material would be very useful in my personal study. Since my project will of course be based around the occupation of Jersey, I think it is really important that I refer back to original images of the time period so that my project can be more accurate. referring to the original images will also help as it will give me more of an insight into my local areas that have a lot of history behind them that I otherwise would not really know about without archive images and documents. It will also give me more of an understanding of how society acted at the time, which would really allow me to have a more in depth view into the thoughts and feelings of jersey people which allows my project to have more of an authentic touch to it. I feel that looking at this material will also help me to be more empathetic to the people of Jersey’s situations during this time. This means that my project will hopefully have more of an emotional touch, which would make it more successful as it will trigger a more emotive response in my audience

Our trip to the Jersey archive, Société Jersiaise, has already been very helpful when it came to getting my project started. Being able to physically see and touch images taken during the occupation has helped me develop an appreciation and deeper understanding of what happened. It has also helped with the accuracy of my project, since I am now aware of certain locations in Jersey that have a special historical significance, which will enhance my project as I will be able to explore different areas of the island by picturing them. This has also helped me appreciate the history of the island that I grew up in since prior to this, I had minimal knowledge on the occupation.

Researching and being able to physically spend a day in an archive has taught me how important it is to preserve things that depict and explain our history, as they key to understanding how our society is in the modern age, lies in what has happened in the past. I have also learnt really important aspects of Jersey’s history which is very important as I now feel more confident in proceeding with the project since I have underlying knowledge of Jersey during the occupation, which I gained from viewing images and reading documents. I have also learnt the importance of exploring local history because it can teach you a lot about the way you grew up.

“The Société Jersiaise was founded in 1873 for the study of Jersey archaeology, history, natural history, the ancient language and the conservation of the environment.”

– source

About the Société

The Société Jersiaise is a Jersey archive which preserves Jersey’s history. Amongst many objects, they house many images that depict Jersey’s occupation during WW2. In the archive you can find many images taken by both German soldiers and Jersey people.

The Société was founded by a group of jersey individuals who were keen on jersey’s history and wanted to make sure it was kept. The Société then grew to include the founding of a museum, and the purchasing archaeological sites in order to preserve and present them. Some sights now owned by the Société Jersiaise are La Houge Bie and La Cotte de Saint-Brélade

Images to the right are from the Société Jersiaise archive.

Our Day

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Our day began with a presentation where we were told some background information on the archive, such as when it was founded and some of the important Jersey photographers who’s work are in the archive.

The archive was formed in 1873, and in 1877 they announced that they had aims of opening a museum. The archive contains over 100,000 images from the mid 1840s, to today. Since Britain and France were both known for the development of photography, Jersey (located between the two) has a rich history in photography. On the 9th of May 1840, photography arrived in Jersey, and the archive contains works by photographers such as Thomas Sutton and William Collie.

We then spent the majority of the time looking through many collections of images, both from the archive and private collectors, from the occupation of Jersey.

We were able to see many photos taken by both Jersey and German photographers, which was very interesting as it meant we were able to see two different perspectives of the occupation.

After choosing our favourite images, we then recorded the reference numbers so that the archive were able to provide us with the digital version you can see in the gallery to the right.

Next, We spent some time learning about narratives. A narrative is the idea that a group of images are able to tell an audience a story. We were given a selection of copies of archive images so that we were able to attempt our own narratives in groups. This was a helpful task as it aided me in realising that sometimes, less images may be better than more. Below is the narrative that my group produced:

Taking my own images

Next, We walked around Jersey’s town centre in order to take images of things to do with the occupation of Jersey.

Best images

Comparing images

while taking images around town, I decided to go to some locations that I had seen in images at the archive. Below are the archive images, compared to the images I took.

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