I started by importing all my photographs from the seond photo-shoot we did as a group, during our trip to the Société Jersiaise. After this, I then went through each of my images flagging my best images with white, and my worst in black to start off my selection process. I then went through my white flagged images and started to rate them out of 5, allowing me to see which images I should prioritise editing and those I want to include in my series.
Editing and Developing
I started off by editing my 5 stared photographs, first of all cropping my images to allow a strong focus on my subjects. I then experimented with black and white for my portrait images, whilst adjusting the exposure, contrast, shadows, highlights, blacks and whites. I did this for each of my portraits and decided to create an edited image in both black and white, and colour for each of them.
Here I used the survey view in order to compare the difference between my portraits in black and white, and colour. I decided to do one edit of each as I believed when placed in a series, although containing the same things, they would tell two different stories.
I also used the survey view to make sure that I was editing my images with similar tonal values to each other, in order to make sure they would fit together in a series, without looking too jarring when placed side by side. I ended up editing my black and white images with a strong contrast and darker tones.
I also experimented with black and white with my architectural photographs, deciding to only create edited images in this style, as I found it emphasised how old or how modern the structures were. This helped me to build up a story and a visual representation of what each part of St. Helier represents and looks like.
How do archives function as repositories of knowledge?
An archive is a collection of historical documents/records which provide information about a place, institution, or group of people. An example of an achieve is Jersey Archives, starting from 1993 Jersey Archive has collected over 300,000 archival records and, it is the island’s national repository for holding archival material from public institutions as well as private businesses and individuals. The Jersey Archive can offer guidance, information and documents that relate to all aspects of the Island’s History. Although, the most common reason for using an archive is to settle legal claims, clarify family history, they are also extremely helpful for historians, filmmakers and authors, as it gives them a sense of the way’s things were.
Archives collect primary source materials such as student newspapers, yearbooks, directories, documents related to groups and organizations, photos, and art pieces. Archives are mostly organised into fonds. A fonds is the entire body of records of an organisation, family, or individual that have been created and accumulated as the result of an organic process. Each fond is kept separately from other fonds to prevent the records from becoming disorganized and mixed up with other information, which would mean that they become inaccurate.
Société Jersiaise, is a photographic archive with a collection of 100,000 images dating from the mid-1840s to the present day. It was founded in 1873, for the study of Jersey archaeology, history, natural history, the ancient language and the conservation of the environment. There are approximately 35,000 historical images in the photographic archive are searchable online. Société Jersiaise also have an extensive library with access to may publications and records relating to the island’s history, identity and geography.
William Collie was born in Skene, Aberdeenshire, Scotland in October 1810. He stared his creative career as a professional portrait painter. Later he moved south, to St. Helier, Jersey in 1841, where he had a portrait business. He became one of the earliest photographers working in the Channel Islands, operating from Belmont House, St Helier. In the late 1840’s he made a series of genre calotype; which is an early photographic process in which negatives were made using paper coated with silver iodide, portraits depicting ‘French and Jersey Market Women’ which were well received by the photography critic of the Art Union (1 June 1847) who compared them to the work of David Octavius Hill, who was a Scottish painter, photographer and arts activist. These studies were later exhibited at the London Great Exhibition of 1851.
The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive lists 157 photographs by William Collie. Although none of them are available to view online, due to copyright. However, you can still see them on some websites. The vast majority of the 157 images listed on the Société Jersiaise website are portraits, but there are four pictures of Jersey scenes which, if the information in their records is accurate, they are of, the church of Scotland (Not Jersey), Mont Orgueil Castle, houses on Queens Road, a granite, thatched cottage. One of his most famous portraits listed on the Societe Jersiaise website is of Elie Jean Filleul, who died aged 102 in 1851. From these images we can gather information about the history of St Helier, by using old images of streets and buildings. Also, we can identity the fashion and lifestyle in the 19th century.
William created his images using a photographic process called calotype, also called talbotype. Calotype comes from the ancient Greek word “beautiful” and “impression”. It is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide, once its dried it is floated on a solution of silver nitrate in a dark room, which forms a photosensitive silver chloride compound on one side of the paper. This is then dried and ready to be exposed to light. When exposed to light the silver chloride darkens, creating a negative image. Which is made to make multiple positive prints simply by playing the negative onto a sensitised piece of paper and exposed to light.
Elie Jean Filleul
Collie’s image contains a good, high contrast as the highlights are bright and the shadows are dark. This is a good aspect to have in portrait photography as it defines facial features. Collie’s image is very clear and sharp even though it was taken in the 19th century. It contains highly detailed textures and patterns; this is due to the fact that it was processed in a dark room using multiple chemicals. This is why the edge is overexposed and has the fading look. Collie’s has positioned the subject in the centre of the frame to draw attention to them, which is an important aspect in portrait photography. By including props, like walking sticks, bowls in the background and a child, it creates a scene and a story which relates to the person being photography. We can tell by the image that the subject is of age due to a beard and the walking stick. This juxtaposes with the child on their lap.
In conclusion, archives are a good repository of knowledge and historic information, they are a good way to reflect on the past, as the contain historic photos and documents which can be compared to the present day. This shows a comparison of what life was like and how it has changed. The photos from the archives can help develop my project, as it displays different cultures and communities, which I can juxtapose to the current day and show how much they have changed. I can also use the archives to get photos to compare past and present buildings, this creates a comparison which shows a positive outcome.
Sebastiao Salgado, born in 1944, is a Brazilian social documentary photographer, known for taking powerful photographs that depict the lives of the suffering and oppressed. It can be said that this flare for activism originated when Salgado joined a political movement that opposed Brazil’s military government, in which he was exiled for. Salgado first started to take photographs after being sent to various African countries on business trips, whilst working as an economist. It is here that he became fascinated with the artform and as a result quit his job to pursue photography full time. This decision led to Salgado travelling to hundreds of countries for his different projects, often focusing on hardships of these places. This includes his project named ‘Workers’, published in 1993, which looked at the end of the large-scale industrial era.
Analysis
Sebastiao Salgado’s ‘Workers’ series
This black and white image taken by Sebastiao Salgado depicts a worn out firefighter drenched in oil walking towards the fiery landscape in the background. This high contrasting image displays a large juxtaposition between light and dark with the oil fuel inferno and the heavy dark smoke that is blackening the sky, leaving no trace of daylight. Here Salgado has confined the frame to only show one man and the impossible task he is faced with, leaving a section of empty space in the center that separates the two. This creates an ominous tone to the image that may both unnerve a viewer of this piece, and also cause them to be in awe of the worker’s bravery. In addition, it can be said that repetition is produced in this image with the round spattering of oil and the bubbled clouds of smoke rapidly emerging from the flames, that hold a similar form.
When looking at this piece technically, it is easy to see that this photograph was taken with solely natural lighting, due to the outside setting. Furthermore, Salgado’s main source of light for this image seems to be coming from the blazing flames in the background, as any sign of sun is block out by smoke. As a result of this lack of light the ISO setting used was presumably high, to create an image that would not be under exposed. The shutter speed used in order to take this photograph was most likely on a fast setting, as the clouds produced by the flames are in crisp focus but must have been forming and reforming at a rapid pace, the same can be said for the spurting oil. In addition, due to the fact that these flames are in focus, it can also be said that Salgado used a small aperture, allowing the entirety of the landscape to have the same amount of visibility.
This photograph was taken as part of Salgado’s ‘Worker’ series that was focused around oppressed manual labourers, that were considered to be over-worked and under-paid. This photograph tells the story of the environmental disaster that occurred in Kuwait in 1991. This expanse of fire and flames were a result of the Gulf War, that saw the United States pitted against Iraq in a fight over oil. With over 700 hundred oil wells alight, firefighters were given the impossible job of containing the raging flames. With this context, it is easy to understand the almost unfazed firefighter walking towards the fire, whilst being showered with oil, with his head hung low in disbelief and exhaustion. Salgado claimed that “In all my long life, I never again found this kind of light” when talking about the flames.
Percival Dunham
Percival Dunham is best known for being Jersey’s first photo journalist, taking many photographs for newspapers such as Jersey Illustrated Weekly and the Morning News from 1913 to 1914. Although little is known of his heritage, due to him having no records of family in Jersey, Dunham played a key role in the documentation of key events of Jersey’s history, contributing to the photographic archive immensely. The first records of Dunham are of his photography business, located on 57 Bath Street, in 1911. Before working as a photo journalist, Dunham was known for taking photographs of events such as the Battle of Flowers and the shipwreck of Roebuck. Dunham spent some time away from jersey when serving as a gunner during World War One, but returned soon after and married a Miss M Mourant.
Analysis
Percival Dunham – 1914
This black and white image taken by Percival Dunham displays troops packing up supplies and preparing to embark from Jersey harbour. Here a large contrast between light and dark is presented through the white uniforms of the soldiers and the darkness of the barrels, pier and the ships. Dunham has framed this image to show the military men in the foreground and the ships to the right in the background, showing the viewer what awaits them in their future. Leading lines in this photograph are created by what appears to be metallic pipes and tracks running across the ground, guiding the viewers eye down the slipway towards the ships and the sea.
From a technical viewpoint it is clear to see that this film photograph was taken with natural lighting, as a result of it being taken outside at a harbour. From the natural lighting, it could be said that this photo was taken at what seems to be midday from the brightness of the image, however this is hard to tell due to the overcast sky. With this it is probable that Dunham used a mid to low ISO setting to allow for a image that was not under exposed. In addition, it also appears that Dunham used a medium shutter speed setting, in order to capture the movement in this image clearly, but also letting enough light into the lens for the image to appear bright enough. Also, the aperture setting used was most likely low, allowing for the ships in the background to be clear and visible, as well as the soldiers at the front.
Here it is clear to see that this was a piece of Dunham’s photo-journalism, due to the candid and un-staged nature of the image. Dunham may have wanted to capture this photograph to display the serenity of the soldiers in that moment, in comparison to the harsh and violent conditions that await them. This can be related to Salgado’s ‘Workers’ image, in the sense that these men are both preparing to head into a place where their lives are being put in danger for their job.
On Monday 28th June, as a photography department, we had a day of learning and information at The Societe Jersiaise Photo Archives. During the day we went out into different areas of St Helier focussing on separate communities who came from different immigrant backgrounds, such as the Merchant Quarter, the French/Portuguese Quarters and the British Quarter. My aim for this photoshoot around town was to capture a sense of place, photographing different buildings, shops, businesses, architecture, streets as well as capturing some environmental shots of people working/living in or just travelling through these areas. The group I carried out this photoshoot with focused on walking through the French/Portuguese Quarters, I was able to plan while walking about the kind of people/places and types of buildings I wanted to take images of. My plan was to photograph the comparison between old and new St Helier buildings, showing how the sense of place changed over time, as new communities entered and old ones left. Additionally, I planned on capturing street photography inspired portraits of these communities to show a range of ethnicities residing on the island – I found it important while taking these images to be respectful around certain areas where people were not comfortable having their photo taken. Altogether, I really enjoyed this photoshoot around different migrant communities, showing a sense of place changing over time and people in a natural and not staged environment.
Editing – Contact Sheets
For the editing process of this photoshoot, I took a different approach, in class this week we learnt how to use different filters such as ‘flagging’ and ‘star rating’ using Adobe Lightroom to filter out specific images I liked or disliked to perform a quicker and easier edit. During the photoshoot I took around 100 images in St Helier, before importing them to Lightroom I did an initial sort through and delete of any images I knew that I did not like/did not tell a story or were just not right in lighting/angles – this left me with around 60 images which I imported to edit. Once my images were in Lightroom I went into ‘Develop’ mode to start filtering my preferred images. I started by trying the ‘Flagging’ filter, using controls ‘P’ for a white flag (preferred image) and ‘X’ for a grey flag (disliked image) and holding down ‘shift’ – this really helped speed up my selection and let me clearly see which photographs were my favourite. Next, I used the ‘Star Rating’ feature to filter each image from 1-5, one star as the worst and five stars as the best, which again really assisted me in seeing which images worked better than the others.
Editing – Over Exposed
While I was editing my images, I discovered a few came out very over-exposed during the time where I was experimenting with my camera’s shutter speed. On Lightroom I went into develop mode to see whether I could edit these images to correct their exposure – under the ‘tone’ section I lowered the highlights, exposure and blacks. Furthermore, on the image where I have photographed the ‘Romanian Delight’ shop, under the ‘transform’ section I discovered how to straighten my image to create more symmetry and level lines throughout by changing it to ‘auto’. I wanted to edit these images in this way to represent and really show the bright colours of the communities we visited, heightening the vibrancy of the coloured houses and shops to demonstrate their character and beauty in the more secluded areas of town.
Editing – Black and White
During my editing process of this St Helier photoshoot, I decided to experiment with editing some of my images with a black and white filter. I wanted to edit in this way to see how darker and lighter tones would affect the mood and atmosphere of an image. I produced this edit in Adobe Lightroom, highlighting each of my five star flagged images and selecting the ‘soft black and white’ filter. After seeing what each image looked like black and white, I was able to select my favourite monochrome photos that worked best in terms of contrast and tone. Additionally, I chose these six images due to their link to my theme of this shoot, showing the change of a sense of place in St Helier through it’s architecture. Each image forms a pair with the one next to it, the left hand image represents an older sense of St Helier and the right image shows the more modern/re-built buildings around town. Each pair is a sort of mini sequence showing the progression of architecture, I love the way the ‘older building’ images have darker tones and harsher shadows which symbolizes the possible atmosphere of St Helier’s past around these secluded areas. Contrastingly, the ‘modern buildings’ hold lighter tones with more white and negative space, creating a clean and crisp atmosphere. The natural lighting produces a softer texture, which is interrupted by the repetition of details on each building such as the windows, brick work and doorways.
Final Edited Images
As well as producing black and white edits of certain images from this photoshoot, I have also decided to experiment with how different colours can tell a story within an image. I edited these final photos on Adobe Lightroom, after filtering out my favourites with flagging and star rating, exploring the different features of the app and correcting any mistakes made while photographing outdoors. For example, as shown before in this post, I made the mistake of over-exposing two interesting images, however was able to amend this by turning down highlights, blacks and exposure. Additionally, I wanted to portray the realness and natural atmosphere of these photographic locations, hence why I conducted minimal editing so not to tamper too much with the ‘sense of place’. I wanted vibrancy, however not so overly enhanced that the images looked artificial – I heightened the contrast and highlights of several images to achieve this bright and lively atmosphere. I wanted to edit my images in this way to juxtapose the otherwise empty streets I was capturing, while some images show life and movement, most are static without people to provide character. This was the main reason I wanted to show a sense of place with the area’s architecture, through repetition, space and shape, connoting the idea of a built up landscape of small business and homes which may not seem much to some, but to those living there is their world.
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.
Société Jersiaise Photography archive
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
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.
Image analysis
Substance:
This image was taken in the 19th century by Henry Mullins.
Obviously, this is a daguerreotype; as mentioned above, “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.”
It was taken to document the types of people in Jersey.
Composition:
Considering the image was taken in the 19th century, the composition of this image is quite amazing. For example, Mullins has successfully centred the subject. This suggests he used the rule of thirds to compose the image. This allows enough space for the subject to appear while revealing pieces of the background equally.
Evidently, the focal point of this image is the man. He appears to be important since he is wearing a uniform and uniforms were typical of someone of authority. Considering his dead stare, it may be argued he’s part of the military since they are normally serious. May be argued he’s a soldier since we see no medals.
Mise En Scène:
As mentioned in Composition:
We can successfully see Mullins has captured an image of someone of authority.
He’s dressed in uniform with buttons and a collar which usually suggest military.
His appearance is quite radiant but serious at the same time; having his eyes fixed on a specific point.
He appears to have a bag with him since there is a strap going over his chest.
Techniques:
This daguerreotype is a direct-positive procedure that creates a very detailed picture on a sheet of copper with a thin silver layer without the use of a negative. To fix the picture, the plate has been submerged in sodium thiosulfate or salt solution and subsequently toned with chloride gold.
Atmosphere:
This photograph makes me feel quite intimidated since he looks important.
This image also has me wondering who this man actually is, is he a soldier? Sergeant?
Lighting:
The lighting in this image is quite low due to the quality of the daguerreotype. However, it may be argued that artificial lighting was used since it was taken in a studio and only one part of his face us properly lit.
Obviously, there are dark tones in this image due to the process used.
Conclusion
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.
How do Archives Function as Repositories of Knowledge?
An archive is a collection of documents useful for explaining and or giving an insight into what events, people or departments were involved in specific things relevant to history. The Jersey archive was established in 1873 as well as the museum and library. It is a unique collection of information. The Jersey Archives has collected over 250,000 records from the government and parishes. The Archive holds documents from 1378 to present day. The Jersey Archive contains information that can be accessed online. This includes records from Churches, Civil Registers, the German Occupation, Court Records, the Government and even Care Records. The range and availability of the information gives a key insight into the day to day life in Jersey throughout different periods in history.
An archive contains information that provide history, knowledge about the history and power of knowledge. A singular photo in an archive is useless however it is extremely useful if it has context that helps gain knowledge about the content of the photo. Photos are extremely useful as they provide a snapshot of a mere moment in time. For example, the Archive has over 31,000 registration cards from people who lived through the German Occupation of Jersey during World War 2. The Archive holds criminal records as well as court records showing what criminal offence had taken place and what punishment was given in turn for the offence.
William Collie was an Immigrant from Scotland and came to Jersey in the late 1840s. He used to dress his family up as French Women but in fact they were made to look like something they weren’t. He created his images using a process called calotype. In this process a piece of paper is coated with silver iodide and then silver nitrate in a dark room. After dry it is exposed to light creating the image.
Collies image was taken 174 years ago and has kept its detail quite well. It shows a woman in a dress with some baskets and pots next to her which can all be seen clearly. However the image is quite faded which can be linked to it being very old. The image even picks up details like the lines on the woman’s dress. Overall this image is important at seeing what life was like back then and can be used to date one of the first recorded images to be taken in Jersey.
The Jersey Archive has 157 photographs from Collie most are portraits however, a few are dated between 1845 – 1880 which are the furthest back surviving photographs taken of Jersey. However, the 157 images the Jersey Archive have of his aren’t accessible online. He also has some landscape photos including a photo of Mont Orgueil Castle and one of Queens road. These photos alone are useless but when put in series with current photos showing change of people, structures, landscapes and technology are extremely useful.
Thomas Sutton was another photographer who spent time in the UK and France before coming to Jersey. Sutton was a pioneer through the 1800’s and developed new camera equipment and photo techniques. Sutton is better known as the first colour photographer and typically focused on landscape.
Emile Guiton was a photographer in Jersey between 1910 and 1950. He is well known for producing one of the first colour images of Jersey. This provides knowledge and social memory of how the world was when he took the photos of Jersey.
Photography dates back to 1839 however photographic salts were being used from 1790 onwards to capture images. The chemicals used were sodium chloride and silver iodine and this basic process created mercury vapours which were later found out to be dangerous. The original shutter speed of the camera was 30 minutes meaning the image would be blurry unless an object was being photographed.
The next type of photography used a paper negative so to get a large picture you needed a large negative. For this process silver bromide was used with an egg white to capture the images. Later on a gelatine dry plate was used in 1878 which made the image last longer.
When at the Archives we were reminded of a Roman phrase which talks about memory and knowledge “immortal memory is held in archive”. This proves that knowledge lasts lifetimes. This phrase can be used to judge how well archives to as a repository of knowledge. The Roman phrase was archived and now it can be read and understood today. Archives are clearly vital to the understanding how things happened at a certain time in history. They also help with understanding how technology has developed and how far we have come since the photo was taken. Archives help us find out information about our family history and where we came from and why but mainly they bridge the link between where we are today and how we got here.
Overall I believe archives are a great repository of knowledge and provide knowledge by giving us an insight into life when a photo was taken. The photos from the archive could help me with a project ide like comparing an old photo to a new one or merging them to create a past vs present image group.
Archives are an extremely important part of our history and help us understand our background through a visual representation. Archives represent three keywords – history, knowledge and power. This is because we learn through looking at images and doing research into our past that allows us to get knowledge about our history and what jersey or any place anyone has lived in looked like before. All this information and archives together gives us power as we can educate ourselves and what we do with this information is powerful as it gives us a more detailed insight into our past. Archival records take many forms, including correspondence, diaries, financial and legal documents, photographs, and moving image and sound recordings. All state governments as well as many local governments, schools, businesses, libraries, and historical societies, maintain archives. To understand the concept of archives in more detail we took a visit to the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive. This is where over 36,000 images are stored from the mid-1840s to this present day. We got to learn about different photographers that influenced and shaped jersey photography for life as well as learning about all the unique techniques and processes these photographers used when it came to producing or even taking their photographs- such as daguerreotype, calotype, salt paper prints, wet plate collodion, albumen prints, autochrome and colour transparencies. Personally, the archives I keep are photos on my phone as I have so many, I like to store them for years to be able to look at them whenever I want as well as keeping and making photo albums of images of me and my friends to have a more visual copy of them instead of a digital copy only.
The photographer we chose to look at on our visit to the Societe jersiaise was Henry Mullins. Henry Mullins was the first professional photographer to come to Jersey and establish a portraiture business in the very early days of photography. Mullins started working at 230 Regent Street in London in the 1840s and moved to Jersey in July 1848, setting up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. His focus was portrait photography – just under of his 10,000 photos are all digitally stored online and all of them are portraits. He took all his images in black and white and in an environment that fit the background of the individual he was photographing to allow us to gain knowledge and greater insight into what their life may have been like. His images of jersey people give us so much knowledge and him documenting all these different individuals lets us learn about people’s different classes, their wealth, how they dressed and basically how their everyday life may have been for them. Just by looking at all the different people in his images, we can learn about how people in the upper class dressed back in the day as they would usually be the individuals who wore suits or were photographed in offices and presented themselves well compared to the individuals who were dressed in old clothes and in a poor living environment such as just a chair or even standing outside or in a farm. Having Henry Mullins photograph the jersey community and society all the way from the mid-1840s allows us to gain knowledge about our early days and how different people’s lives or jobs were compared to how jersey functions in the present day.
This is one of the photographs that Henry Mullins took that I will choose to analyse. This photo is a portrait as that was his main focus. His image is in colour and the technique he used was Daguerreotype, in this image we can see a woman sitting on a chair ready to be photographed. A daguerreotype image is taken on a mirror-like silver surface and will appear either positive or negative, depending on the angle at which it is viewed, how it is lit and whether a light or dark background is being reflected in the metal. The darkest areas of the image are simply bare silver; lighter areas have a microscopically fine light-scattering texture. The surface is very delicate, and even the lightest wiping can permanently scuff it. Her hair is nicely put together and shes wearing a very formal dress which can tell us a lot about her wealth status, which I’m guessing shes upper class by the way shes dressed and the chair she is sat on looks very fancy. This creates knowledge for us as we get an idea of what women maybe in their later 20s to 30s looked like from different classes. It gives us an insight into how they dressed and what the fashion was like.
Overall, I think photo archives give us so much knowledge about our society in the early days and how our history has all been photographed in order for us to be able to reflect and keep learning about our past. It gives us such a rich insight into what we used to wear, the different job roles individuals had and allows us to see the difference in class and wealth throughout the years just through simple portrait photography – as Henry Mullins focused on. Photo archives are also important in educating us on how to improve as a society and seeing images from our past they help us in shaping our future. This has inspired me into thinking out my own photography project and our key theme which is identity and community. Just through photographing different individuals in town or around jersey will educate someone else in 50+ years’ time by looking at my images and they’ll be able to gain knowledge of what jersey used to be like in 2021 and onwards, they would be able to see what we wore in this present day and the difference still between our wealth status. Therefore, archives are so important to our society, and it helps us to learn, and we can gain a better understanding of our history as well as gaining knowledge of different individuals that used to live in Jersey as they all shaped our future and our day to day living standards.
The colourful theme in the zine I used complementary colours in my zine to create strong contrasts throughout because I like how the contrasts emphasises the colour in the photographs. The structure of the images was placed in rainbow order to stop the colour of the background and to make the zine better is by having the background colour of the contrasting photograph on pages 12-13 the same colour as the high viz jacked on page 4.
I started by setting up the layout for my zine and how many pages I want for this. Then I selected the frame for my image to go into.
I pressed control D which I selected the image I wanted to put into which in this case was the blue car.
To make the image fit the frame I selected the image then clicked on fitting then fit content proportionately so the whole image fits in the frame.
After that I did the same again but clicked on fit content to frame so the image would fit the frame perfectly.
After fitting the images where I wanted them to be I then started playing about with the background by starting with a black and white background but I found that it didn’t fit as the images were too colourful.
I then explored with different colours and colour theory where I decided to have contrasting colours for the background. For example in the images it has mostly red so the background colour would be green.
I found the original colours I used were too dark so I tried lightening the colours which I found made the images stand out more.
I then decided to play around by flipping some images 90 degrees or even 180 degree and then added some colourful shapes for the empty space to make the zine more fun and colourful.
As a group of 4 we decided to order these in a chronological order, telling a story from start to finish. We presented the sequence as two rows going down, like reading a book. It starts with pre-war where the soldiers are training and the war has just started. Continuing to during the war focusing on people left behind and community and the end focusing on the return of soldiers and celebration.
My Own Images
I have grouped the images to show the similarities or differences between the groups. for example on the left I have grouped images to show the difference between new and old buildings but also included similar pictures of the same theme like residential buildings.
On the right I have grouped the images based on the similarity of the location, being shops. They also have the same red in each image which makes them flow nicely from image to image.
I have separated images that I think will not work nicely with the others or do not match the quality of the others.
Sequencing
Using my own images from the town photoshoots the theme I would like to focus on is community and lifestyle/surroundings. The zine will have a mix of residential buildings and commercial buildings to contrast each other.
The first page will have a full page of a singular image to set the scene for the rest of the zine. Throughout the zine there will be a few double page spreads of individual images to break the zine into parts. There will be street style portraits of people in their everyday routine. I will have no more than two images on one page spread to keep it simple and strong. I will contrast pages by using colour, subject and shape.
