“Everyone today has a story; the world’s an archive.”

― Anne Rice, The Wolf Gift

An archive is a database with records holding the history of humanity. These include, books, certificates, photographs, items and more.

These records actually gives the current and future generations knowledge of previous events, what the world used to look like in the past in comparison to today. They may also provide context which helps us understand why a certain picture was taken, it provides reference points between information sources which improves our knowledge of the world and past.

The reason to looking back into the past is so we learn about various events but most importantly past mistakes so we do not repeat history.

Only nine months after it was initially published in the major centres of England and France, photography arrived in Jersey on May 9 of 1840.

It features 19th-century photographs by notable photographers such as William Collie, Charles Hugo, Thomas Sutton, and Henry Mullins. The collection includes collections from late-nineteenth-century studios by Jersey photographers such as Ernest Baudoux, Albert Smith, and Clarence Ouless.

In the 21st century, we have had a major photo-journalist, the Emile Guiton-archive archive, who’s an honorary curator and the founder of the Photo Archive of Société Jersiaise, which contains more than a thousand negative images by Dunham Percival.

Along with this, we got the chance to see Mullins’s portraits of Victorian islanders as preserved on the pages of his photograph albums, which served as a catalogue of clients for his professional
practice at the time.

Henry Mullins began his working at 230 regent Street, London in the 1840s. During this time he was part of the circle of photographic pioneers at the Royal Polytechnic Institute, Regent Street, London here the first photographic studio in Europe opened in 1941. Mullins then went to Guernsey in the summer of 1847 and ultimately moved to Jersey in 1848 and set up a studio called the Royal Saloon at the 7 Royal Square in St. Helier.

By 1849 he worked alone and began his work on Cartes de visite which translates to visiting cards. They were daguerreotype photographs which for Mullin, his subjects were people. He would take portraitures of family and their children. By the end of his life, he had created an album of at least 9,000 portraits of islanders between 1852 and 1873, Jersey population at the time was 55.00 therefore he managed to capture at least 16% of the population.

He was one of the most prolific photographers of the first generation of Jersey photographers in the mid-nineteenth century.

He ended up being the photographer of choice for leading members of Jersey society and successful local and immigrant families. It was common for his portraits to be printed on a visiting card which were commercial photographs created using egg whites to glue the photographic graphic chemicals to the paper. This is what a daguerreotype is. These cards were very small normally measuring 54×89 mm and commonly mounted on a piece of card measuring 64 by 100 mm. However, Mullin mounted his shots on an album.

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In summary, I largely agree that we can really learn from prior photos. As noted earlier: “These records actually inform current and future generations of previous events about what the planet used to look like in the past. They can also provide a context which enables us to understand why a certain photograph has been shot, which provides points of reference between data sources that enhance our understanding of the world and the past.” In order to display the difference in classes we learned, for example.

Through his work we have also learned that everyone is human at the end of the day. His role, power and dressing are simply the only distinction between people.

In addition, it’s vital to look back at the past in order not to repeat past errors such as the holocaust but to learn about diverse events that have made humanity to where we are today.

On the other hand, I felt that photos and archives are vital for conveying a tale, for showing how people used to be and how we have thus far evolved.

Henry Mullins has led me to portray people from a range of professions for my own project. And to use film to generate an effect comparable to photographs of Mullins. I’ll take my time on vacations to Madeira (my place of birth), go to museums and possibly archives, and photograph Madeira and Jersey, since they have both shaped my identity.