The Camera Obscura

A camera obscure is a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side, through an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite. Camera Obscuras with a lens in the opening have been used since the second half of the 16th century and became popular as help for drawing or painting.

The camera obscura was also used to study eclipses without the risk of damaging the eyes by looking directly at the sun. When it was used as a drawing aid, it helped tracing the projected scene to create a highly accurate picture.

Nicephore Niepce

Nicephore Niepce was a French inventor. He was led to the art of photography by his interest in the new art of Lithography. However he lacked the artistic ability for these. Letters to his sister-in-law around 1816 indicate that he had managed to capture small camera images on paper using silver chloride, with him apparently the first to have any success at all in such an attempt, but the results were negatives, dark where they should be light and vice versa, and he could find no way to stop them from darkening all over when brought into the light for viewing.

Niepce used a coating of bitumen of Judea to make the first permanent camera photographs. The bitumen was hardened where it was exposed to light and the unhardened portion was then removed with a solvent. A camera exposure lasting for hours or days was required. Niépce and Daguerre later refined this process, but unacceptably long exposures were still needed.

Louis Daguerre

Daguerre experimented for years with increasing the sharpness of the lens in the camera obscura and working at discovering the reaction of various light-sensitive materials when applied to different surfaces. With Nicephore Niepce, who was engaged in similar efforts, he worked on this. They worked at permanently capturing the images they saw in the camera obscura, and critiqued each other’s work with each attempt. It was essential that they prepare a medium to be sensitive to light, using a lens and light to form an image upon it, but then making that same medium insensitive to further exposure so that the resulting image could be viewed in light without harming it. When Niepce passed away in 1833, and Daguerre continued some correspondence with his son, Isidore.

Daguerreotypes

By 1835, word got around Paris that the city’s favourite master of illusion and light had discovered a new way to enchant the eye. In January of 1839, the invention of a photographic system that would fix the image caught in the camera obscura was formally announced in the London periodical The Athenaeum.

Louis Daguerre called his invention “daguerreotype.” His method, which he disclosed to the public late in the summer of 1839, consisted of treating silver-plated copper sheets with iodine to make them sensitive to light, then exposing them in a camera and “developing” the images with warm mercury vapor. The fumes from the mercury vapor combined with the silver to produce an image. The plate was washed with a saline solution to prevent further exposure.

Daguerreotypes offered clarity and a sense of realism that no other painting had been able to capture before. By mid-1850’s, millions of daguerreotypes had been made to document almost every aspect of life and death.

Henry Fox Talbot

Shortly after the invention of the daguerrotype was announced in 1839, Talbot asserted priority of invention based on experiments he had began in 1834. At a meeting of the Royal Institution on 25 January 1839, Talbot exhibited several paper photographs he had made.  These showed his ways of chemically stabilising his results, making them insensitive to further exposure that direct sunlight could be used to imprint the negative image produced into the camera, onto another sheet of salted paper – creating a positive.

The calotype, was then introduced in 1841 – it used paper coated with silver oxide. The calotype process produced a translucent original negative image from which multiple positives could be made by simple contact printing. This gave it an important advantage over the daguerreotype process, which produced an opaque original positive that could be duplicated only by copying it with a camera.

Richard Maddox

Long before his discovery of the dry gelatin photographic emulsion, Maddox was prominent in what was called photomicrography – photographing minute organisms under the microscope. The eminent photomicrographer of the day, Lionel S. Beale, included as a frontispiece images made by Maddox in his manual ‘How to work with the Microscope’.

The Gelatin or Dry Plate photographic process was invented in 1871 by Maddox: This involved the coating of glass photographic plates with a light sensitive gelatin emulsion and allowing them to dry prior to use. This made for a much more practical process than the wet plate process as the plate could be transported, exposed and then processed at a later date rather than having to coat, expose and process the plate in one sitting. The gelatin dry plate process technique was developed and eventually led to the roll film process.

George Eastman

In 1884, Eastman patented the first film in roll form to prove practical and useful. He had been experimenting at home to develop it. In 1888, he developed the Kodak camera (“Kodak” being a word Eastman created), which was the first camera designed to use roll film. He coined the advertising slogan, “You press the button, we do the rest” which quickly became popular among customers. In 1889 he first offered film stock, and by 1896 became the leading supplier of film stock internationally. He incorporated his company under the name Eastman Kodak, in 1892. As film stock became standardized, Eastman continued to lead in innovations. Refinements in colored film stock continued after his death.

Kodak Brownie

The Kodak Brownie was a series of cameras made by Eastman. They were introduced in 1900 – it was a basic cardboard box camera with a simple meniscus lens that took 2 and 1/4 square pictures on a 117 roll film. It was made and marketed for Kodak roll films, and because of its simple controls and initial price of 1$ (31$ in today’s money.) it became very popular.

Film and Print photography

Print photography is the practice of utilising chemically sensitive paper that’s exposed to a negative, a transparency or a digital image from a printer or similar device. Alternatively, the negative or transparency may be placed on top of the paper and directly exposed which creates a contact print. Digital photos, however are printed commonly on pain paper, for example by a colour printer.

Film photography is a type of photography that uses chemical processes too capture an image, typically on paper, film or a hard plate. These analog processes were the only methods available to photographers for more than a century prior to the invention of digital photography.

Digital Photography

Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to ask exposure on film. The images captured are digitised and stored as a computer file ready for further digital processing, viewing, electronic publishing or digital printing,

During the 18th century, power in Jersey was concentrated in the hands of the Lemprière family. In 1750, Charles Lemprière was appointed Lieutenant Bailiff, while his brother Philippe was named Receiver-General.

One of Charles Lemprière’s major opponents within the Island was Nicholas Fiott. He was a captain and merchant who had disagreements with Lemprière going back many years. Things came to a head in the mid-1760s when Fiott struggled to find a lawyer to represent him in the Royal Court as they were all appointed by Lemprière.

Finally, Fiott took his frustrations to the Court. This was the opportunity for which Lemprière had been waiting. Fiott made his objections in writing and was prosecuted by Lemprière for insulting members of the Court. Fiott was fined and sentenced to ‘amende honorable’, which meant that he had to get down on his knees and pray for the forgiveness of God, the King and the Court. He refused to comply with the sentence and was sent to prison for a month. On his release, Fiott left the Island.

In 1767, people protested about the export of grain from the Island. Anonymous threats were made against shipowners and a law was passed the following year to keep corn in Jersey. In August 1769 the States of Jersey repealed this law, claiming that crops in the Island were plentiful. There was suspicion that this was a ploy to raise the price of wheat, which would be beneficial to the rich, many of whom had rents owed to them on properties that were payable in wheat. As major landowners, the Lemprière family stood to profit hugely.

On Thursday 28 September 1769, a Court called the Assize d’Héritage was sitting, hearing cases relating to property disputes. The Lieutenant Bailiff, Charles Lemprière, sat as the Head of the Court. Meanwhile, a group of disgruntled individuals from Trinity, St Martin, St John, St Lawrence and St Saviour marched towards Town where their numbers were swelled by residents of St Helier. The group was met at the door of the Royal Court and was urged to disperse and send its demands in a more respectful manner. However, the crowd forced its way into the Court Room armed with clubs and sticks. Inside, they ordered that their demands be written down in the Court book. Although the King later commanded that the lines be removed from the book, a transcription survives that shows the crowd’s demands.

Local Farming Practises

At the time of the Jersey Corn Riots, around the 28th of September 1769, Jersey mainly grew crops such as wheat and corn, which has been revealed to be an ancient custom, with cereals being rarely grown. Wheat in particular was grown to make bread and was also used as a currency. Due to Jersey’s rich, fertile soil, good climate temperature and rainfall, people sometimes found that more than enough of these crops had been harvested when they had fully grown, which allowed the extra crops to be exported and sold, providing the workers with an income.

The Power of Protest

Starting around 1767, the harvest of wheat and corn had fluctuating, sometimes leading to exports of crops being banned in the years of poor harvest. However, in 1769, there had been a poor harvest of corn, which lead to the price of wheat increasing. This made it far easier for the rich, or people who had loaned money, to eat, while making it harder for the poorer to afford food. This lead to a large riot, with parishioners from Trinity marching to the Royal Court demanding change, in particular the price of wheat being lowered, it was only until 1771 did these changes take place.

Changes to Local Laws

After the events taken place at the Royal Court in 1769, changes were made to laws and powers in Jersey. The ‘code of 1771’ was put in place, this meant that all existing legislation in Jersey was joined together, this allowed for laws to be more fair for everyone. This code made the Royal Court unable to create any more laws, as well as making the Lempriere family, one of the largest powers in Jersey at the time, lose power due to their unfair monopoly on Jersey.

CONTEXT – Black Lives Matter Movement

The fight for racial equality has been fought for centuries, last year showed a large increase in the amount of protests that took place for the Black Lives Matter movement due to the death of George Floyd. Some protests were peaceful, however some people took to raiding businesses and defacing statues, showing their eagerness to change the way society is.

Eventually these protests inspired Jersey citizens to also take part in these protests and on the 6th of June 2020, a large protest of 1000 people of multiple colours took place at People’s Park, proving that equality should be shown in Jersey as well.

I have uploaded my images to Lightroom and flagged the images i want to edit.

I used a star system for categorising my images, 4 stars for ‘maybe’ and 5 stars for ‘definitely’

History of the Jersey Corn Riots

In 1767, people protested about the export of grain from the Island. Anonymous threats were made against shipowners and a law was passed the following year to keep corn in Jersey. In August 1769 the States of Jersey repealed this law, claiming that crops in the Island were plentiful. Though there was no known loss of life, many came armed with sticks and clubs, and an usher was thrown over the court railing during the disturbance. The event paved the way for major political reform on the island. In the reform, known as the Code of 1771, the Royal Court was stripped of its legislative powers, meaning that from 1771, only the States Assembly could create laws.

The power of protest

At the exhibit we got to see examples of signs and objects people used to protest, it was create to learn about the history of the corn riots and how these riots impacted peoples lives hundreds of years ago. Acts of resistance started taking place. A corn ship about to export goods was raided by a group of women who demanded that the sailors unload their cargo and set about selling it on the Harbour, giving the proceeds to the owner of the vessel. Other disturbances took place, leading to the events of 28 September 1769.

Affects of the Corn Riots at the time

The Lempriere family were exporting corn over what they needed which meant that the people of Jersey were going hungry. The price of corn was increased and the price of rent was increased the monopoly of the Lempriere family was in full force. People came to riot at the royal square and they ordered that their demands be written in the Court book of the time. The Greffier obliged and their orders included demanding a fair price for food and living.  Lempriere family decided they didn’t want to make any of these changes, so they went to London to present the rioters problems to the King. This was done albeit not exactly truthfully, so the King said that all the demands should be erased from the Court records. Locals were obviously furious. But £100 was offered to any rioters who turned another in so many people now changed sides. For Jersey the Corn Riots were the beginning of making the Law fairer for the people of Jersey.

Black history month

Black Lives Matter is a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people.

October is black history month, this is especially significant following the unfortunate death of George Floyd last year, which triggered a much vaster way of supporters as his death was spread worldwide through the news and social media. Even through this event was terrible, it expanded the BLM movement and we even held a gathering in Jersey at People’s Park. The BLM movement originally was formed in July 2013 with the use of the #BlackLivesMatter on social media, which went viral on apps such as TikTok.

A Cyanotype is an alternative photographic process where light sensitive chemicals can be applied to paper, wood, or fabric, and an image becomes exposed through UV light such as the sun. Images placed on the surface can range from plants, objects, digital and analogue film negatives. After exposure, the exposed surface is developed with water and a blue and white image appears. This process uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide creating light sensitivity and the brilliant cyan colour.

History of Cyanotypes

The cyanotype process was historically used in the late 1800’s as a way to make blueprints and English botanist and photographer Anna Atkins was one of the first artists to make “photograms” by placing plant specimens directly onto the surface to create an image. She then went on to produce the worlds first photographically illustrated book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. Although Anna Atkins was the first person to use Cyanotypes for photography, it was invented by John Herschel in 1842 in order to reproduce his notes and drawings.

The simplest kind of cyanotype print is a photogram. which is made by arranging objects on sensitised paper. Fresh or pressed plants/flowers are more commonly used but any solid object will create an image. A sheet of glass will press flat objects into close contact with the paper, resulting in a sharp image. Otherwise, three-dimensional objects or less than flat ones will create a more or less blurred image.

Process of making a Cyanotype