The ‘People Make Jersey’ exhibition showcased within Jersey Museum, allowed us as students to explore the rich history Jersey contains as well as its vast number of occupants that have helped shape that history. This exhibition displayed just how much variety Jersey has in terms of culture, describing the Island as a mixing pot of people who have come from countries all over the world, or even people who’s families have been here for centuries. From visiting this exhibition I have learnt of the many different stories of migration that played a crucial part in creating Jersey’s cultural identity, varying from religious and political refugees to economic migrants.
One section of the ‘People make Jersey’ exhibition focused on the many ‘Alien’ registration cards, which were introduced in 1920 and issued to migrants who had relocated to Jersey. These cards displayed various pieces of information such as the profession, previous residence and nationality of the person, alongside an image of them. This therefore gives us a visual representation of the many different backgrounds and stories Jersey holds in small fragments. In addition, this also allowed for the public of Jersey to be given an opportunity to view images and information of distant family members, that established their roots on the island, for the first time, providing them a link to their diverse family histories.
Another section of the exhibition on the other hand, looked at family names that are often associated with being typical ‘Jersey’ names which contain a long line of family history on the island. Originally, these typical ‘Jersey’ names were in fact used to identify where certain immigrants were from, with names such as Le Breton, De Gruchy, Norman and more originating from various areas in France, and names such as Hamptonne, Le Gallais and Langlois originating across Great Britain. Even hundreds of years later after first arriving in Jersey, these predominant names can still be seen and recognised as an important part of the island, with establishments like Normans and De Gruchy, located in town, still running to this day.
However, when reflecting on the statement ‘Every Jersey resident has an immigration story – whether their family came here 500 years or five years ago. This exhibition explores some of these stories and the ways in which immigration has shaped and influenced the Island we know today.’ displayed within the exhibition, I found that the section that explained the English influence to Jersey life, to be personally the most interesting aspect. This is as although I was born on the island, the rest of my family originated mainly from Manchester and had no previous links with the island. I was even more so fascinated with the small piece of the exhibition that explained the introduction of the English education to the island, made first available to the boys at Victoria College, due to the fact that my mother first moved to the island to continue her career as a teacher, as a result of Jersey being in a shortage of the profession.
The exhibition is based on the fact that, “Every Jersey resident has a story of how they come to be living in the Island, whether their family came here 500 years ago or five years ago. ‘People Make Jersey’ explores some of these stories and the ways in which immigration has shaped and influenced the Island we know today.”
The oldest items in the exhibition belonged to Jersey’s first permanent settlers, who arrived around 7,000 years ago. The created basic stone tools and lived in a sheltered place where they could plant their crops and raise their families.
Picture of tools, Jadeite polished stone axe and ring. These would have been brought into Jersey from mainland France around 6,000 years ago.
It then follows the waves of immigrants who have arrived in Jersey over the centuries. Some of the people were religious, which introduced different cultures and beliefs into the island.
There was an glass display island in the exhibition which displayed lots of passport type cards. These were the Aliens registration cards, which show lots of French people living in Jersey in 1920.
There were also some residents from much further afield. Jersey in 1920 was a surprisingly international community. E.g. Belgium, Toulouse, and Czech Slovakia.
There was a wall which featured the current generation holding there ancestors registration cards, this was a good way to visualise the different cultures in Jersey and its history.
Near to the registration cards, there was a map on the wall, which mostly focused on France. It showed where some of the popular surnames originated from. In the old days the surname just meant where you were from, e.g. John Coutanche, who was from Coutances, France. These are all the names and places displayed on the map :
UK – LANGLOIS from England – LE GALLAIS from Wales – HAMPTONNE from Southampton
FRANCE – DE CARTERET from Carteret – DE LA HAYE from La Haye de Puits – DE GRUCHY from Gruchy – COUTANCHE from Coutances – LE BRETON from Brittany – NORMAN from Normandy – PERCHARD from the Perche region – LE POIDEVIN from Poitou – D’AUVERGNE from Auvergne region.
There was a wall that had items which people brought to Jersey when they first came. Each person had one item that had a significant value/memory to them. Some of the weird/interesting items was a, Potato grater, which was brought to Jersey from Poland by Karolina Klonowska, as it was very old and belonged to here grandmother, she brought it to Jersey so she could cook her favourite Polish dishes. There were other items such as dolls, passports and, musical instruments such as a flute.
Around the exhibition there were old images of Jersey maps, notes and news papers. I thought they were interesting as so much has changed over the years, for example the Waterfront wasn’t even there in the map, as it was build recently. These are the Old vs New comparisons using images from the exhibition and new versions from today.
OLD NEWSPAPER VS NEW NEWSPAPER
OLD MAP VS NEW MAP
OLD FRENCH MONEY
PHOTO SHOOTS
After the exhibition, we visited the Victorian part of the museum, and went on 2 walks round town. The first walk we were looking at the different types of bricks and stones in the buildings. There was this one building which have blue bricks that reflected in the sunlight (the building with the French flag). The second walk we went round town. This is a image of a map where we went. We took photos as we walked around town of the buildings and anything we saw, mainly focusing on:
MIGRANT COMMUNITIES IN ST HELIER – a sense of place – character of community – people, portraiture
EDITING IN LIGHTROOM CLASSIC
I imported all my images into Lightroom from the museum trip on the 7th June.
This is the selected flagged images, that use the p (pick) and x (reject). The white flag is placed on the good images, where as a black flag on the rejected images. I used this to filter all my images, which was around 300 to get it down to 10-30 good images.
I did basic adjustments to the images, increasing clarity, decreasing dehaze, increasing contrast etc. Including gradient and radial filters.
I took some of the images into Photoshop (using edit in –> Adobe Photoshop, option in Lightroom) and removed distracting elements such as ropes and security cameras.
I tried a black and white, (monochrome) look to see if it would add more drama and create a moody atmosphere.
Then I used Lightroom compare view to compare the edited black and white image with the edited colour image.
Portrait – I like how the black and white brings out the details, and adds more age to the image. This works well due to the subject being of age. Although, I prefer the colour version as it shows more personality, which is crucial in portrait photography. The detail in his eyes and mouth is more defined in the coloured image, the colours also create depth, which is hidden in the black and white version.
Detailed Image – There is lots of detail so, the black and white image separates the whites and the blacks making them more defined creating depth. It gives a cleaner look the the image, but this is not the aesthetic I wanted as it is a messy, dirty building site. Which is why I like the coloured image more, as I shows sections of dull colour between the metal poles.
Fast Shutter Speed Image – This image shows motion in the faster flying birds, whist still freezing time as the birds fly. I like this image better in black and white, as there is more contrast and detail, compared to the coloured version. It also helps bring out the shadows in the birds more.
CHOOSING MY FINAL IMAGES
Lightroom made it easier to see all my images, as they were all in one place. Lightroom has different view features, such as, full screen, compare view, and survey view.
I used the survey view to display my good images, them I ordered them best to work using the star system inside Lightroom.
The purple colour tagged image was the best/my favourite, so I marked it 5 stars. This becomes useful when I have to make a zine, so I can just filter by 4+ stars, so I get my best images.
I colour coded my images based on its topic. Ill will try to keep it consistent throughout to year, so it is easier to find images.
The colours are: – Yellow – Indoors – Green – Outdoors – Red – Portrait (environmental) / People – Purple – Black and white photography
These are the final images in Lightroom, I then exported them into my PHOTO-SHOOTS folder in a sub-folder called June 7th Edits.
FINAL IMAGES
The larger images are my favourite ones, as there have a really nice compositions and colour.
Overall, there was a good variety of images, consisting of portraits and street photography. My favourite type is street photography, just walking around and using temporary objects to create foreground elements, since I use angles, reflections, and shapes to create my images, E.g. the car reflection in the orange street art image.
In my opinion, I think that my Anthropocene project, through the style of altered landscapes, has been successful. This is due to the fact that I believe I have portrayed what man’s impact on the world may visually look like, by presenting the hypothetical situation in which Jersey’s National Park is not protected from mass development. With this my original intention was to show how the geological age in which humans have been around, has had resulted in an unbalanced nature. This starting idea then developed, once researching and analysing photographers Tanja Deman and Felicity Hammond, into the intention to display how the earth’s natural and beautiful landscapes are in danger of urbanisation and industrialisation, due to the incessant greed of man for land, property and possessions. I think my final images well reflect the work of my two chosen photographers as, from a visual standpoint, they all showcase the imposition of urban/industrial structures on rural landscapes. Furthermore, I also believe that my final images reflect Deman and Hammond’s work from a conceptual and contextual view point as well, as I have decided to create these images in order to defend the sanctity nature possesses and hold humans accountable for their actions and attitudes that warrant the destruction of this very thing. In addition, when looking at my final images a viewer may see the potential dystopian like future Jersey may hold if these regulations were non existent, in which our stunning coastlines are reduced to a mere setting of smog and pollution.
Although I believe that my final outcomes for this project are successful, I also think there are some ways in which my work could have become even better. One way this could have been achieved is by taking natural landscapes at more than one location, and potentially visiting another area belonging to Jersey National Park. In addition, by also having a wider range of urban photographs, I may have been able to include more structures within the natural landscape, therefore intensifying the message I was aiming to convey.
In order to produce this altered landscape edit, in the style of Felicity Hammond and through the lens of Anthropocene, I started off cutting out all of the structures I needed to use for that edit, from my urban landscape photo-shoot. After I had done this, I dragged the buildings onto my chosen photograph from my natural landscape photo-shoot one at a time. With each structure I adjusted the hue/saturation, brightness and contrast, and colour balance, to make sure the tones in that layer would match the tones and colours of the natural landscape, in order to make them fit in more with the landscape. Once I had done this, I then adjusted the perspective of the structure, meaning the angle of the layer would correspond with the angle at which I took the natural landscape from. Next I used the clone stamp tool to make sure the structure is embedded within the landscape, in the grass. Finally after doing this same process for the other three buildings I included in this edit, I added a solid orange colour as a layer and placed it over the flattened image, and selected the overlay option. This was done to cause the edit to look more similar to Hammond’s work. Then I also added a slight gradient overlay, starting from the bottom of the image.
Edit 2
For this next edit I followed the same editing process as the image above, however using a different structures and a different base natural landscape.
Edits in The Style of Tanja Deman
Edit 1
In order to create this altered landscape, in the style of Tanja Deman, I started off by cutting out the one structure I would need for this edit, from my urban landscape photo-shoot. With this edit I only used one building to replicate Deman’s work, as she usually has the focus on one structure instead of multiple. After this I then dragged the cut out image onto my chosen photograph, from my natural landscape photo-shoot. Next, I tried to match the tones and colours of both layers by adjusting the hue/saturation, brightness and contrast, and the colour balance. Once I had done this, I used the clone stamp tool to make it look as if the building was embedded in the grass. Then, after I flattened the image, I converted the image into black and white, whilst also adjusting the shadows and highlights. Finally, I used the dodge and burn tools to add slight adjustments, and highlight the side of the building that would have been facing the sun, if it were there .
Edit 2
For this edit, also in the style of Tanja Deman, I followed the same editing process as the image above, although this time using a different structure and landscape.
My original intentions where to shoot more landscape images with a wider perspective. Although I did manage to complete this for a few images, my focus shifted more towards a more close up look at Anthropocene landscapes and more abstract methods of capturing the argument between man and nature.
I believe the process of researching and reacting to Anthropocene in a creative and technical manner as a whole was sacksful as I gained a lot of knowledge about the topic and developed my skills in terms of how to react to it. I believe I gathered and edited a successful range of images which react to the topic well.
I chose the above three images as they link really well with Anthropocene.
The owl sleeping in the barn window fits really well as the natural lighting beaming through the window romanticises the creature and the leaves behind it and the bubble wrap floating in front of its face represents man’s impact on wildlife. The owl is also framed really well in the window.
I chose the other two images because of how they represent ideas of industrialism and how their colour scheme reacts well to George Marazakis’ work.
A4
The above three images relate well with this project. The deralict land rover with the trees growing around it reacts well to Camilo Jose Vergara’s work and it features the idea of nature fighting back against man.
The two other images relate well to George’s work as they feature a vast landscape with subtle clues of man’s ‘disease’ on the natural environment.
A5
I chose the above three images as they all represent Anthropocene well. The second image is framed well and has a lot of leading lines which makes it an impactful image to represent the idea of deforestation.
The graveyard represents the death of humanity and the idea that nature will always flourish with the vibrant leaves enveloping the bleak gravestones.
Framing and Manipulation
I chose to form a triptych out of the images above as they all present the same theme of man’s destruction and all have a similar colour basis of a greyscale juxtaposing with a deep, vibrant green/emerald colour.
Here I have Started to experiment with the editing process, in which I will use to create a piece similar to Felicity Hammond’s, by creating a rough edit of industrialism in the natural landscape. Below is the initial collage that I will use to try out different methods of editing, with my aim to create work similar to Hammond’s ‘In Defence of Industry’ series.
After putting a together a quick example of what my final piece may look like, I then attempted a few different ways of creating an orange tint over the photograph, again replicating Hammond’s work. Firstly, I edited the image first into black and white, to allow for a sepia style tint to be applied over the top of the image. I also attempted to achieve this orange hue by placing a solid colour as a layer over the edit, and then selecting overlay as a blending option. This style allowed for some of the colours in the image to show through as well, without it being all one tone. Finally, I tried including a light gradient overlay, to darken the bottom half of the image, which I believe could allow the viewers eyes to be eased into the altered landscape.
In addition to this, I also tried to experiment with editing in the style of Tanja Deman’s work, focusing on one single urban structure. I put together this rough edit to try to replicate her style, in which the urban structure largely contrasts with the surrounding nature. By doing this I am also allowing myself to have a clear idea of how I will produce my final products within the controlled conditions.
Initially, I started off by converting my altered landscape into black and white, adjusted the levels of the tones of colour, due to the fact that all of Deman’s work are presented in black and white. However, I then added an orange tint and gradient overlay, trying to see what it would look like if I were to combine the two photographer’s styles of altered landscapes. This produced what appeared to look like a slightly apocalyptic landscape. However, In my controlled conditions I will keep these type of edits in black and white, as it links more closely to the photographer.
I am reacting to the works of Camilo Jose Vergara and George Marazakis so I focused on a film look with lower saturation on some images and warmer monotone colour schemes on others.
