For one of our photography trips, we visited the Jersey Archives and the War Tunnels to gain more information and photos about the occupation.

Jersey archive:

Jersey Archive is responsible for the islands historic sites, museums and public archives. They hold collections of artifacts, works of art, documents and information relating to the island, dating back to as far as 600 years old. #

During our visit, we had the opportunity to look at documents from the second world war and from when Jersey was occupied by the Nazis. There were letters from the German soldiers to their families which were never sent, messages sent through the red cross from the Jersey occupants who were stuck on the island, registration and alien cards, and messages from the royal family to the island.

This was all incredibly interesting as we were given insight as to how people lived their lives and survived during the war, and what a different time it was compared to the modern day.

One of the registration cards belonged to the only known survivor of diabetes on the island during the war, a boy named Maurice Edward Green. My uncle actually met this person, now an old man, while he was working, and Maurice told him his story of what he did during the war. Due to the lack of resources, the supply of insulin ran out, leaving those who depend on it to either find other ways of gaining insulin or to unfortunately die. Discharging himself out of the hospital, Maurice went to the library and read up ways on how to keep his insulin up, and then proceeded to scavenge for eggs and other natural resources, and because of this he managed to survive.

Hyam Goldman, a bee keeper who lived on the island during the war. Jersey Jews weren’t sent to camps as commonly as those who lived in Germany, however there were still discrimination put against them. Jersey Officials were ordered to ban Jews from holding jobs or running businesses and confiscated their property. They were banned from public places, were subject to special curfews and could only go shopping between 3PM and 4PM.

Louisa May Gould was a woman who lived during the second world war and was sadly killed when it was found out she was sheltering a Russian Slave escapee.

This letter was sent to Jersey from Buckingham Palace after the Island was Liberated.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Michelle Sank has been living and working in England since 1987, after leaving her birth country in 1978. Her work focuses on the issues about social and cultural diversity and the challenges within.

Her work have been exhibited and published in England, Europe, Australia and Mexico, South Africa and the USA, and are held in collections in the UK, Channel Islands and the USA.

When it comes to her images, they almost always feature a person as the subject, capturing them in ways which portray their personality and what they’re like as a person. They’re always centered in the image despite what angle the picture is taken from.

Visual :

In this image you can see a young girl in a bright orange coat crouched down on grass. The buildings behind her are prominent yet don’t steal the attention away from the person in the center of the image.

The colours in this image are bright and contrasting, the eye catching orange of her coat standing out between the vivid green grass and the blue sky. The angle the image was taken seems to be taken from a lower angle, just lower than the girl herself, to really capture her in the image and to make sure she is the center of attention.

Contextual :

This image is from a collection called ‘Teenagers Belfast’, done by Michelle Sank. These portraits were commissioned by Belfast Exposed Gallery, in Belfast, Northern Island. This was made to empower these teenagers with a sense of individuality and to locate them in environments which don’t reference the political struggled or past emblems of this. Sank wanted to portray these young people as normal teenagers, positive aspects of a new and developing society, but also being able to portray the culture through the clothes, buildings, light and the landscapes.

Technical :

The lighting used in this image is natural, it doesn’t look too bright or too fake on her clothes and the fact that it’s been taken outside also proves this. The distance where the image was taken from isn’t too far as to not have her be the main aspect of the image, yet it’s not so close that it’s not giving her her own space. It gives the image the perfect amount of background to go with the person in the middle.

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.