My personal Investigation based on Occupation vs Liberation, has allowed me to develop my photographic skills and has furthered my historical knowledge on the German Occupation of Jersey.
As an introduction into our project on the German Occupation of Jersey, we visited the Société Jersiaise. Looking through the photo archives in groups allowed me to gain insight into what World War 2 was like through imagery. I finally got a better understanding on the historical context of the Occupation in Jersey, whereas previously I didn’t appreciate the significance of this event.
I began the project by writing an essay with the title “Whose Archive is it anyways?”, which allowed me to explore the importance of archives, it’s purpose and why they are still relevant in the present day. I now know how new technology has changed the role of archives as well as what we think an archive is. My understanding of archival photographs is that they open a window into the past and give a glimpse of what people’s lives were like during the Occupation.
We then went on a photography trip to see the bunkers located at Battery Moltke. A CIOS member began the tour by giving us insight into what the German Occupation was like in Jersey. We explored and photographed the principle bunker which has been turned into a museum. I also visited Batterie Lothringen during my spare time which was a World War 2 coastal artillery battery. During this photo-shoot I learnt the importance of lighting. I captured landscape images during Golden hour where the warm colour of the low sun enhanced the colours of the scenes.
Our photography class also learnt how to use Lightroom, a photo management and editing software combined into a single tool. I now know that it helps to import, organise, manage and find your images. I first started experimenting with Lightroom when using my images from the Battery Moltke photo-shoot.
After learning about zines and how it’s a tool that photographers can use to tell a visual story, we were then expected to create one based on the Occupation vs Liberation theme. Before getting started, I analysed the zine “Concrete Jungle” which helped me to gain inspiration and made me realise the importance of narrative and sequencing within a zine. I created a zine called “Glimpse of the past” using InDesign. My first zine only includes imagery from the Battery Lothringen photo-shoot since these images where my strongest outcomes.
We then visited the Jersey Archive which contains archival material from public institutions as well as private businesses and individuals. I now know that their purpose is to preserve the written cultural heritage of the Island so that future generations can access the material in order to learn more about Jersey’s past.
Another site where we developed our landscape photography further was the Jersey War Tunnels. Visiting this location helped to improve our camera skills in dark lighting since we learnt about the IOS setting and what shutter speed to use in low lighting conditions. This ensured that the photographs wouldn’t be under or over exposed.
We then focused on portraiture. This is when I researched two portrait photographers: Martin Toft and Ernest Baudoux. I compared their photographic styles and incorporated both their techniques into my own portrait photography. This lead me into conducting my own photoshoot on Joan Tapley in the studio. Before we photographed Joan, we got to listen to her war stories which allowed our class to gain knowledge of what it must have been like to experience the war through childhood. This photo-shoot helped me learn the different types of lighting used when capturing portraits in the studio as well as how to interact with your subject to gain the best photographic outcomes
We began the next theme Still Life by researching the historical context and the symbolism presented through objects. We got to photograph Occupation Objects from the Jersey Archive in a creative way using the still life table. Our photography class learnt about the lighting used to photograph objects and the importance of using a tripod to capture a steady image. After doing two still life photoshoots, we moved onto photomontage. This is when I began creating edits in response to The First March Of Gentlemen by Rafal Milach. I was inspired by the collaged archive photographs as well as the geometric shapes which restrained the figures. This influenced my second zine where the bold, vivid colour scheme juxtaposes with the historical black and white images of soldiers. I like the idea that the colourful aspect of my zine camouflages the serious subject matter of World War 2.
