How do archives function as repositories of knowledge? 

Archives are used around the globe, preserving several types of information from around the world to ensure it is not lost or forgotten from Government records to paintings. Professionals work hard to preserve such material so future generations are able to look back and compare/evaluate how times have changed. In this essay, I will specifically be researching photo archives in Jersey and to what extent they function as repositories of knowledge in both modern times and in the past, from physical buildings, i.e: the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive, formed in 1873 with the objective to create a museum and library¹, to how people today use their mobile phones to capture and store thousands of images on a day-to-day basis quicker and more easily than ever before. 

The Societe Jersaise was first founded by a small number of islanders who were interested in the “history, language and antiquities of Jersey” before interest began to grow which led to the publication of historical documents, a museum² and more, photography playing a significant role in the creation of the library and museum due to it being a popular medium at the time to record research and scientific records in a documentary way. Eventually, in 1913, the Societe created sections in order to separate the different areas of interest, the photographic archives getting its own section with specialist staff being employed to ensure the best upkeep and preservation possible of the hundreds of thousands of images from a variety of different photographers, dating back from the mid-1940s to present day. 

Due to photos taken by a variety of skilled photographers over the past few centuries being so well preserved, it allows us to evaluate their techniques in modern times. Thomas Sutton is an example of a skilled Jersey photographer from the 1800s whose work has been archived by the Societe Jersaise, allowing easy access to his local images of the past. He is an important figure when it comes to photography due to his experiments and contributions which include developing the first panoramic camera with a wide-angle lens [it being able to capture in a 120° arc], taking the first permanent colour photograph, creating a photographic dictionary, and working on the development of dry photographic plates³. As his work has been documented, it allows professionals to acknowledge and explore how his work developed further after his experiments along with how it changed other people’s quality of work, creating a better understanding of how photography can be used and developed further. One of Sutton’s key images is of a Tartan ribbon [which is shown in figure 1] where he took the world’s first coloured photograph in 1861. The image itself is quite dark due to the dark background, however, this allows the brighter tones and colours to pop out, making the image as a whole intriguing to look at. Along with that, the composition of the image itself is well chosen as it focuses on the details of the ribbon, such as the pattern and textures created by the way the ribbon has been tied, whilst still keeping the image quite simplistic.  

It is certain that buildings such as Societe Jersaise have flourished over the centuries as more and more images get taken and preserved each year, especially due to how accessible cameras have become, allowing millions of photos to be taken per day compared to the limited amount of images that could be taken and produced through older cameras [I.e: film cameras] which would require a chemical-heavy process in order for the photos to even be viewed let alone published. However, the use of digital archives has increased the amount of images that can be stored along with the influence photography can have on an individual. This has and will continue to develop due to the creation of apps such as Instagram and Twitter, allowing all sorts of images to spread faster than ever before. From personal images to professional grade landscapes, finding and posting images can be done in just a few clicks, allowing for information about different cultures, social status, and environments to be easily compared. This is fascinating as it allows for a mass contrast between how individuals from the same era live such differing lives from the overwhelming amount of information that can be exhibited through the visuals alone whilst also creating an alternative to finding information on the past and comparing it to the modern day, often leading to the creation of new techniques and inspirations.

In conclusion, archives can function as repositories of knowledge through displaying past information and allowing future generations to learn from, interpret and expand upon said knowledge as they please. The different types of information that can be stored develops upon this further, as there lacks a limit as to how much history can be preserved, especially as there are many ways of conserving information, the most common being visually through images, as I have explained throughout this essay, due to how convenient comparing images from different eras and lifestyles can be, allowing us to see when different techniques emerged and developed throughout time.

How are archives a repository of knowledge?

In present time, physical archives aren’t as popular as previous years due to the creation of technology such as phones and computers. These phones make taking photographs very easy and accessible for all users. Due to this, photos have become less special and significant to modern day rather than 100 years ago when photographs were seen as treasure and important. The Société Jersiaise was founded in 1873 for the study of Jersey archaeology, history, natural history and the ancient language of Jèrriais. They have special events and the Lord Coutanche Library supports the work of the Société Jersiaise by collecting and preserving material relating to Jersey’s history. Their photo archive contains over 120,000 images ranging from the 1840s to recent day. In recent years, the Societe group has led out an excavation of human and mammoth remains at La Cotte De St Brelade which has helped the population understand and learn about the heritage of Jersey and the geographical history. As stated on their website, the Societe main objective to produce and facilitate research on the Island’s history, culture, language and environment; and to share that knowledge with the widest possible audience for the benefit of our island community. This benefits the islands heritage as it holds old documents of a nearly extinct language of Jerrias, meaning this history will not be forgotten. The Societe offer memberships to the community from £12 (if your a student) to £100 a year. By applying for the membership you get permission of access to all heritage sites, regular newsletters, and a 10% discount on books. A large and engaged membership has been crucial to the considerable successes of the Société Jersiaise over many years. Membership is open to all and by joining, it means you would be supporting many activities with your subscription. The archive holds images and documents from historic photographers. Early photographers such as William Collie, Charles Hugo, Thomas Sutton and Henry Mullins. Included as well are later nineteenth century photographers such as Clarence Ouless, Ernest Baudoux and Albert Smith. To follow in the 20^th century the archive holds very value images from a rich point in history in Jersey. This being WWII; specifically, images from the German occupation and the liberation of the island. 

The history of archives dates back to nearly the 7th century BC with the first one named the Library of Ashurbanipal. The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BC, including texts in various languages. The archive contains a poem from ancient Mesopotamia named The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts.

Henry Mullins

Henry Mullins is one of the most influential establishers of f La Société Jersiaise who started working in London from 1840 and later moved to Jersey is 1848, where he set up a studio as the Royal Saloon. He worked at his studio for 26 years where he learnt his speciality which was cartes de visite and the photographic archive of La Société contains a massive collection of these. Their online archive contains 9600 images, but the majority of them are sets from up to 16 photographs at a time. After setting up his studio in the royal square he created an advert in 1852 to attract customers to have portraits taken.

By looking and analysing Mullins work you get a good understanding and idea of the different types of people throughout that time period. Mullins’ photographed many different kinds of people from soldiers to carpenters, maids, children and even people with extreme power. He also photographed Charles Bertram who was a magician from 1853-1907 and was known as ‘The Royal Conjurer’ because of his performances for the royalty. After his death his collection of over 20,000 negatives was acquired in 1883 by Clarence Philip Ouless and formed part of his collection which was given to La Société in 2006.

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Conclusion

Overall, archives record and represent events that have happened throughout the history of the world, educating newer generations of how life was lived and the importance of their ancestors. By learning about archives will help inspire me to complete my archive as it teaches about the past without using words but rather through images. After learning about archives it means I have the knowledge of why they were used, how they were created, and aspects from them that can be imported into my zine project.

Archives tell and hold stories within them, showcasing how life progresses and how it develops over time. Anne Rice once stated, “Everyone today has a story; the world’s an archive.” The Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive was formed within the year of 1873. The society was known for recording local photography including prehistoric monuments, buildings and ruins and was able to establish photographs for more than 140 years and currently they hold over 36,000 photos. This society has allowed for a record of our history to be recorded with the archives being established. Within the images themselves, context was said to be the most vital aspect of the photograph as they provide reference points between information sources. This allows us to gain knowledge of our world and creates a sense of meaning, the archives are a repository as they provide local information, knowledge and social memory. Without the context, the images produced wouldn’t make any sense, so it is incredibly vital that there is information behind each image as to provide more knowledge around the overall meaning and why the image was taken in the first place. Archives are incredibly important materials, and we can learn a lot about them through analysing the images within them. They can help us provide a more historical and visual background on how Jersey has changed drastically within the years of 1840 to the present time. Photography wasn’t established in Jersey until 9^th May 1840, and since that time, Jersey has indeed taken a massive change over the centuries to what it is today. What we can also see from the archives is just how much the way photographs taken have changed over the years, this being showcased with the quality and possible colours shown within the images. We ourselves keep our own personal archives in many different forms, this including photo albums that tend to contain physical prints in them, or even saved images on our phones. Although these archives are a lot smaller than the typical ones, they show insight into our memories and lives as a whole, telling a story in itself.

Henry Mullins is known to be one of the most prolific photographers presented within the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive. He was part of a circle of photographic pioneers at the Royal Polytechnic Institute where his first photographic studio ended up opening in 1841 in Europe, before he moved to Jersey in 1848. Judging by the collection of his photographs which is now held by Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive, he found plenty of willing sitters in the island prepared to pay half a guinea to have their portrait taken by him. He produced over 9,000 portraits of islanders from 1852 to 1873 at a time when the population was around 55,000. What we have of Mullins works is of Victorian islanders that are preserved on the pages of his photo album, which he placed his clients in a social hierarchy. The arrangement of Mullins’ portraits of ‘who’s who’ in 19th century Jersey are highly politicised. Henry was quite a popular choice when it came to photographing portraiture and was a photographer of choice for leading members of the Jersey society and successful locals and immigrant families. The archives have definitely helped us obtain all this knowledge on Mullin’s portraits due to them all being in such good condition for us to take a closer analysis into. 

In 1893, the birth year of photography began to fall into place and many different processes for producing photographs was introduced. There were decades of development put into place within photography such as with lens manufacturing and centuries of research into the photosensitive qualities of silver salts. For Mullin’s photographs, he would print out his portraits on a carte de visite which was where a small photographic portrait of a person was mounted on a piece of card. He would produce these usually as albumen prints which was the first commercial photographic print produced using egg whites to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper. The print was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card. These prints were usually 54.0 × 89 mm normally mounted on a card sized 64 × 100 mm. The carte de visite photograph proved to be a very popular item during the American Civil War. Soldiers, friends and family members would have a means of inexpensively obtaining photographs and sending them to loved ones in small envelopes. Mullins would end up mounting his carted de visite into an album and because of the small size and relatively affordable reproducibility, cartes de visite were commonly traded among friends and visitors in the 1860s. Mullin was quite well known for his use of arranging single portraits into diamond cameos, creating multi-portraits. The image above is an example of one of his diamond cameos and was a light brown tint due to the use of the egg white aging over time. 

Archives function as repositories of knowledge as they provide an understanding of how photography has changed over the years, and these are clearly displayed within the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive. The photographs display changes over the years with the way they were taken, what was used to take these, how they were finalised and developed, the quality of the images and the overall changes of the cameras used. When the archive was first created, a lot of these factors needed development and this type of development can be showcased throughout the range of images displayed within the archives leading up to the present-day images. The archives are also containing knowledge in the sense of showcasing how society has developed over the years and how the structures and areas of Jersey have followed along too. These are present mainly within street photography which tend to display the locations and the people present in those locations. These types of images expose the different time periods and how people use to be in the older times. Re-visiting these old images from well-known places in the modern period, lays out the ability to compare with recent images and observe the many changes that would be visible. In conclusion, archives are repositories of knowledge that can be very convenient to many photographers and also many historians as they present what life was like in the past and compare it to modern day images. 

Through evidence from the Societe Jersiaise Photographic archives we can gather that photography became widely known in Jersey on 9^th May 1840, this was shortly after it was first publicised in England and France in Urban centres. This then led to the creation of the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archives which later originated in 1873 and consisted of a museum and library and has been preserving and documenting historical records for over 140 years. The archives are a primary source of gaining knowledge into Jerseys history. Due to the large amount of information, they can provide into how the world was at certain times which romans called an “immortal memory” within the archive that would last generations. These forms of historical material can consist of a book, photographs, newspapers, birth certificates, family photo-albums, etc. There are also many works from a variety of nineteenth century photographers such as Henry Mullins and Thomas Hugo and other local based photographers like Thomas Sutton and Albert Smith. In the twentieth century, the archive holds many developed negatives from Percival Dunham, Jerseys first photojournalist and Emile Guiton who was the Honorary Curator of the Societe Jersiaise Museum and original founder of the Photographic Archive. Aside from this, we as a society also hold our own personal archives through our phones, computers, text messages, etc and they are valuable into providing knowledge to generations to come as they show details of who we are as a unique individual then also together as a society. 

Thomas Sutton who was an English photographer, author, and inventor is an extremely important figure for local and wider photographic history throughout his life from 1819-1875. His local importance consists of when he opened a photographic studio in Jersey with his business partner Louis Desire Blanquart-Evrad where they produced prints from calotype negatives before it burnt down in 1854. His importance in wider photographic history is evident as he has produced several books regarding the subject of photography such as the Dictionary of Photography in 1858. His historical importance is seen numerous times throughout 1859-61, this starts with the development of the earliest panoramic camera with a wide-angle lens in 1859. The lens consists of a glass sphere filled with water that projected an image onto a curved plate and the camera was capable of capturing images in a 120-degree arc. Then in 1861, he creates the first single lens reflex camera, and this consists of a mirror and prism system where the light bounces off the off the reflex mirror in the camera and onto the optical viewfinder. This then helps the photographer captures views through the lens. Thomas Sutton was also a photographer for the physicist, James Clerk Maxwell who pioneered the first demonstration of colour photography in 1861. This was achieved through Maxwell’s thought-experiment which he had previously published in 1855. This led to Sutton taking three separate black and white’s photos and photographing red, blue, and yellow tartan ribbon three times where he then combines them into one colour composite.  

This was the first coloured photograph developed by Thomas Sutton in 1861 and the image is unique in how it looks because I see a diamond or other gem which is being extracted carefully by the tools which are holding it on each side. If I were to choose some words to describe this photo, I would choose delicate and colourful because of how the light falls on to the diamond making the different angles illuminated through the distinct colours and textures which have happened due to the light against the dark background which highlights the unusual shapes which I really like. The genre of this photograph would fall under abstract in my opinion because there is no way to tell what the object really is even though it is in focus. I really like this technique because I think that it is able to show the process which I explained above of how Thomas Sutton created colour in this image which shows that a camera has been used in this photographic process. The space around the object is also different to other photos as it is cropped quite closely to the edges of the object, which makes it quite effective as you only focus on what is in the foreground of this photo of the light bouncing off other objects to create different colours, this also gives the photo a 3D look because of how the colours are able to reflect and bend around the area of the object.  

Therefore, archives are extremely important as repositories of knowledge from the past and this is because we can gain a deeper insight into the knowledge of photography, and of how colour photography for example was created and developed upon. They are also able to inform us of our social history through showing different structures, buildings, and portraits of other important or normal people from the past which can give us a valuable insight into what the world was like before it became as we know it now. Archives also hold the most importance into gaining an insight into images from the past because we are able to apply it to current day because it will help me and others to be able to develop our own photographic project of Jersey because we can compare them alongside one another to see the development of Jerseys industrial and natural life and show a picture from before to now. As a photographer, I would respond to what I have learned throughout this as to look and think creatively when taking photographs because you can create interesting and unique images which may be able to tell stories which will inspire and ignite creativity within other people. Visiting the Societe Jersiaise archives was a valuable into learning about Jerseys history as we were provided with examples of different local photographers work as well as photos of places, we have been such as Green Island and it was interesting to be able to see what they were like beforehand. 

How do archives function as repositories of Knowledge?

Photographic archives are collections of photographs, which can be held by libraries or museums. These have long been essential tools for researchers and photographers. Photographs in a photographic archive may be created or bought together for a specific purpose or reason, or an individual or broader audience. For example, someone like a scholar, or researcher, may take photographs and assemble and preserve them for future research. This would then be a private archive. An archive may also be a creative or documentary record of one individual or firm such as a professional photographer’s archive, a scientific archive, or a news agency. Many private or commercial photographic archives have found their way into research institutions, such as libraries and museums.

“As the internet has begun to show, ‘Archive fever’ is a prevalent aspect of human behaviour, with everyone collecting something or other, either as objects or via photographs”

Archives, Networks and Narratives, David Bate

Many people, in fact most people, keep personal photographic archives. Things such as photo albums of family members, or even photo collections on mobile phones, can function as archives. Organising these by important dates, events or people, categories our knowledge and our memories of our own personal experiences and people we know, as well as how we feel about them. These images and collections could also provide others and society things about you: obvious things like where you’re from and your family, but also things like how you feel, your life experiences, and things you’re interested in. As the digital age advances, more and more personal archives online are readily available, such as on social media, or online galleries, which shows more of a readiness to share more about one’s life than before technology was so advanced. It also highlights increased freedom among society, especially freedom of expression, which can be seen through more creative photography and how society (in general) is more of contrasting.

Looking back from a modern perspective, some archival photographs could be seen to be boring, or uniteresting. I think in the ages of early photography, it was less common to produce informal, unposed images in comparison with today, and the thousands of ways to capture a subject. That poses the question of whether some archival images are good resprosities of knowledge, as they often seem to be posed, and seem very formal. It could be argued that they are not, and they only represent the “best” parts of a subject, or the part the photographer wanted to bring across. – However, this can also be argued with almost any picture today, due to the ability to manipulate what we know about something through a lens. It is therefore clear that this problem is not new, and not the fault of the ever increasing use of digital media, but can be seen in archival images also.

The Société Jersiaise, Jersey’s main historical society, with aims of the “Publication of Local History” and among other things “to found a library, mainly historical and archaeological” was established in 1873. It continued to grow through the century and realised its’ aim of opening a museum in 1877. With the practice and collecting of photography identified from the mid 1800s, collecting and photographic research continued from there. From there, interests in scientific and documentary records increased, and these patterns of development have continued to get stronger over more than 140 years. In the present day, the remarkable archive that is The Photographic Archive of Société Jersiase contains over 100,000 images dating from the mid 18-40s to the present day, and it is the main collection of Jersey based photographs from the ninenth and early twentieth century.

One key photographer that is important when thinking about Jersey’s photographic archives is Edwin Dale. He was born on the 3rd January 1882, and was first entered the world of photography afer entering the photography Eisteddford competition in 1913, for which he won four first prizes and two second prizes. He was not a full time photographer, and made a living running his father’s leather, boot and shoe shop at 63 New Street in St Helier. He had a passion for photography, and his preferred subjects to shoot were scenes of the harbour, churches, houses and country lanes. He also took intruigiung portraits of islanders at work. He had a love of motorcycles, and used this to travel around the island to take his images. Even though he is not considered the first Jersey photojournalist, he can be seen as one, after covering events such as the 1911 royal visit, and the lead up to world war one. Around 1914, roughly 14 of his photos were published as a series of postcards. – His work is considered among the most iconic images of the island from the early 20th century, which has been made into a collection within the Société Jersiase Photographic Archive.

Edwin’s images are crucial to Jersey’s photographic history and archive for a few reasons. They show the life of islander’s during and just before the first world war – this makes these images, part of the Photographic Archive, a repository of knowledge that is essential to understand the struggles of those before us on our small island. Not only that, his portraits also give us more information of fashion during the early 20th century, the mood of the island and its’ society, and the landscape, which has drastically changed in the last 100 or so years. Most of his images, except some portraits, appear unstaged. – This factor means that Edwin’s images within the archive can be seen to be good basis’ of knowledge, as they show an unbiased, “truthful” point of view of what he was photographing. This repository of knowledge helps to add to our understanding of Jersey’s past, and makes in easier for us to compare what life seemed to be like in the early 20th century wth Jersey’s society nowadays.

This image above is one of Edwin Dale’s. This is image is somewhat imformal, but still staged, which raises questions of the setting and year which it was taken in. I chose to analyse this image for this reason, as it makes the viewer question not only the actual image, the subject’s odd pose and the reasons for such, but also the reasons behind it – It is clear in this image how different the actual attitudes surrounding photography and its’ uses during the time are to the modern, fluid ideas of photography in the present day. The woman’s expression is firm, along with her rigid body. These two elements would have made more sense if the subject was in more of a conventional position, because of its’ seriousness. This put together with the strange pose in which the woman is posed is an odd combination. I think the strange nature of this image could suggest a slight playfullness to the image, almost hidden, as if it isn’t allowed. The seriousness of all of Edwin’s other images juxtaposed with this image creates a huge contrast – this is why archives are important. The contrast, and slightly weird nature would not have been noticed if it wasn’t for our access to photographic archives. Therefore, this images proves that photographic archives are great sources of knowledge for research and discovery, as well as comparison, to reach conclusions.

Overall, after reviewing and studying photographers important to Jersey’s photographic history and archives, I believe that archives mostly function very accurately as repositories of knowledge. They enable those in the present day to research and examine previous times in history. They can be used to examine the way society functioned at the time, how people felt, the fashion, as well as the landscape. However, as I have mentioned, it can be said that archives do not function accurately as repositories of knowledge – images within the archive sometimes are not telling the “truth” of a subject or place, and it is difficult to decipher what we know is correct and incorrect from some archival images. This makes it difficult to gether historical information and knowledge from the images. This problem is also prevalent in modern photography, with the controversial problem especially within photojournalism, of whether we can trust the information pictures give us. Overall, I think that as our society advances and we begin to reflect more and more on our past and compare it to our future, photographic archives, like the Photographic Archive of Société Jrersiase, will become more and more important as a source of knowledge and understanding for all.

“The Romans talked of an immortal memory held within the archive, and whether any archive will last for eternity or not, they understood that by building on each other’s knowledge we can create a collective memory that last generations.”

In January of 1873, the Société Jersiaise was formed by a small number of Islanders who took an interest in Jersey history, language and antiques. After the founding memberships grew quickly and their aims soon widened to include the publication of historical documents. In 1877, the Société Jersiaise realised its aim of opening a museum. The Société identified its priorities as being the practice and collection of photography which lead to them being activities which continued to be used in significant parts of the Société’s museum and library operations. From this multiple interests in photography as a method of recording research, as documentary and scientific records and as an independent art form are maintained by Société members. The Museum and the Photographic Archive are looked after by Jersey Heritage as the Société Jersiaise is not funded by the government but is a charity.

The Photographic Archive contains over 100,000 images which are dated back as far as the mid-1840s and are the principal Jersey collection of nineteenth and early twentieth-century photography. In May of 1840 photography came to Jersey which was just 9 months after it had been published in England and France, this allowed amateur and professional photographers from both sides of the English Channel as they were now allowed to practice without patents restricting them. By having access to these images of Jersey in the 1840s-present day we can see how our island has changed and how our ancestors used to live and run the island we live on now without the use of modern-day technology.

Photographic Archives don’t need to be funded by the government or be connected to a charity like the Société Jersiaise, now in the twenty-first century, we carry these archives around in our pockets on a daily. Mobile phones and other devices store our photos, texts, videos and many other things making them an archive of our own life. Another modern way we have adapted in our lives to keep images and videos is social media which allows other people from the society we live in to see what we do and where we go.

One Key photographer from the Photographic Archive is William Collie, he was probably the first photographer to use Fox Talbot’s calotype process in Jersey. In the 1840s Collie made a series of calotype portraits showing ‘French and Jersey Market Women’, with one being printed on salted paper which survives in a private collection. The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive lists 157 photographs by William Collie, with the majority of them being portraits but there are a few Jersey scenes which are contenders for the accolade of the earliest surviving views of Jersey. The scenes feature the Church of Scotland on Midvale Road, houses on Queens Road, Gorey and Mont Orgueil Castle and a granite, thatched cottage. These were all dated between 1845-1850.

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By studying William Collie’s main collection of the ‘Market Women’ we can learn many things about how women in Jersey society looked and acted. These photos can help us imagine these women’s social status/class, what they were doing in the market and what groups would have been there during the late 1840s. Furthermore, Collie’s photographs of the Jersey Views allow us to see our Island nearly 200 years ago and how the island specifically structures in Jersey have developed and changed due to the natural environment and decay. Having these images could allow the reconstruction or redevelopment of older structures like the houses on Queens Road or the Church of Scotland that would have naturally started to ‘wither’ or ‘fall apart’ cause of their age.

I have chosen this image to analyse as I believe it is one of the more clearer photos that we have access to, most of the other images of William Collies do not contain as much intricate detail due to the age and how they have been transferred online for viewing. Having photographs that show ‘Market Women’ can help us understand what women during this time period would have worn and how clothing would have changed due to social class and their standing in society.

One thing I like about this photo is the intense detail that is shown in the two wicker baskets to which the woman sits next, this would have been difficult to achieve during the time of William Collie but by using Fox Talbot’s calotype process he was able to create a negative image which helped to highlight the different patterns and texture in the cloths, food and woven baskets. These many different textures create a shape to the photo as views are able to easily depict what they are and what they would feel and look like now. Another feature that relates to the texture I think adds personality to the photograph is the cracks in the wall which show the age of the market and how it might have been worn down due to the number of people that walk through there every day. Furthermore, I enjoy the contrast between the white, black and grey tones in the image as the darker parts of the tartan scarf stand out against the lighter grey background of the wall the woman was sitting in front of. In my opinion, I think the composition of this image complements all the features but still allows the ‘Market Woman’ to be the main viewing point, the photo seems organised and composed but you can see that the woman is comfortable and is in an environment she is used to.

By using the Société Jersiaise and the `Photographic Archives we can learn a lot about the history of our island and the historic meaning of many objects, people and buildings. Accumulating information like the Photographic Archive doesn’t just help us with looking back through time at old buildings or people it can also show us how the world was run at any period and how it has been developed. I believe that using these courses such as the Société Jersiaise can help further the education systems and allow for multiple generations to “create a collective memory” which will last centuries. For example, using the archives could give many photography students help on different projects around Jersey and the history of the Island and our ancestors.

How do archives function as repositories of knowledge?

Archives, such as the Société Jersiaise, are used to store and preserve documents, photographs, objects and other forms of data and information, providing its users with repository of knowledge on subjects regarding human history, to archaeology and other alike subjects. The Société Jersiaise is a photographic archive founded in 1873, where its early members collected and created records of Jersey and published them in Annual Bulletin. The Société gained more members and collections over the years, with local photographers such as Emile Guiton and Henry Mullins, who ‘realised that history was being made’, they decided ‘recording in permanent photography local prehistoric monuments, buildings and ruins’ in order to better preserve Jersey’s culture and history, was crucial. Archives such as this allow people to view the world as it was, at that time, giving a wider sense of community, as well as a more knowledgeable understanding of the island, all by providing public access to these records.

However, some archives, such as a family or personal archive, are not limited to a building/company. Photobooks, albums, diaries are all ways of recording a family’s/individual’s history and their more intimate nature allows them to be organised in a way that’s more meaningful to those connected to them, perhaps similar to that of a collection of art. Modern technologies allow for archives, such as the Société Jersiaise to be published digitally, allowing access from anywhere, likewise, a personal archive can be published on social medias to be shared with friends and family.  

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One particular photographer whose work has been archived by the Société Jersiaise is one of the most important photographers both in Jersey and the wider world: Thomas Sutton. Sutton’s importance comes from his work in the study and practise of photography, not only were his photographs artistically appealing, but his publications, such as the Dictionary of Photography, and inventions, including the first single lens reflex camera, as well as the first permanent colour photograph, were all important in the world of photography.

Sutton had a workshop/studio located in St. Brelades bay from 1847 to around 1854, where it burnt down, during which he was patronised by Prince Albert and French photographer Louis Blanquart-Evrard acted as his partner. During his time in Jersey, he photographed several landscapes around the island, including both natural and man-made structures, as well as a few portraits, and published Souvenir de Jersey, the first photographic publication with Jersey as its subject. Some of his images have been recorded by the Société Jersiaise, as these images provide both in aesthetic and artistic, as well as a historic way. Some of the recorded images include ruins of old buildings and towers, sights that would not have been seen in the modern day without the use of an archive, which links clearly to the importance of archives and their function as a repository of knowledge and culture. His work with Blanquart-Evrard also provides an insight into the processes of photography used at the time, Sutton’s being the calotype process during his time in Jersey.  

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This image is an example of the Calotype process Sutton and Blanquart-Evrard worked on during their time in Jersey, taken roughly in the year 1854. This method of performing the Calotype process was first published in France in 1847, by Blanquart-Evrard himself. The process involves placing a sheet of paper with silver chloride in a camera obscura to create a negative. The difference between William Talbot’s original process involves coating the silver chloride on the surface by brushing on the surface of the paper, while Blanquart-Evrard’s process involves fully coating the paper in potassium iodide and silver nitrate by having the paper ‘float’ in the solution.  

The image depicts a ruined tower, likely on the west coast of Jersey in St. Ouens, with what appears to be only about one half of the tower remaining, giving the ruin an almost artistic tone akin to a photomontage cut-out. The viewpoint of the image allows the top half of the tower to be positioned in the sky, giving it a clear background that emphasises the form of the bricks and contrast of the shades on them. There are two kinds of lines in this image, both are divided by the natural and unnatural aspects of the image, which was likely intentionally done by Sutton. There are irregular lines made by the plants, sands and rocks, as well as straight lines made by the windows and edges of the tower, the difference of the types of lines emphasises the differences between the two, putting more of a focus on the tower itself. It is likely that this image was taken for documentary purposes, however it is undeniable that Sutton intentionally used this particular composition to create an artistic flare. 

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By looking at images from the past, such as Sutton’s calotype works, we can indeed use them and, by extension, the archive that stores it as useful ways of gaining knowledge particularly about the past, whether that is our cultural, geological or artistical history. Sutton’s work (specifically in Jersey) mainly focusses on landscapes as their subject, however, there are many other photographers, such as Henry Mullins and William Collie, whose work has more social connotations, documenting people and their different cultures and occupations. It is these photographers that gives us a clearer image on Jersey’s social history and with the help of the context given to them by archives, we can gain greater knowledge on Jersey’s diverse culture.

As for my own work, I think archives can help me gain more context historically, culturally and socially about the island itself, which will tie nicely into ‘Island-ness’ and hopefully give each of my images more meaning. As a photographer, my response to the wide knowledge an archive can provide would be to research a particular event or theme that I am interested in and link my own photographs to those documents, be it by adapting them to the modern age, or adapting the modern styles to the archived ones. 

 A photo archive is a collection of photographs created or brought together by an individual or institution. In the 21^st century, a photo archive could be analog or digital, or both. Photo archives are typically used by museums and institutions to record objects in their care. The photographs in an archive might have been assembled for a specific purpose or for multiple uses, for an individual or a wider audience. For instance, a scholar may take photographs and assemble and preserve them online for future research purposes. This would be a private photo archive.

Why are photo archives important?

Photo archives are important to keep a record of important events and artifacts in history to look back on over time, the bigger the archive, the wider the understanding – photo archives are usually kept in prints depending on how old the collection is, but with new technology the majority of archives can now be found online.

The Jersey photographic archive

Jersey has it’s own photographic archive which contains over 125,000 photographs of different aspects of Jersey culture including the changing landscape, important artifacts and major events that have happened in Jerseys history. The photographic archive is important because it helps educate people about Jersey’s heritage.

The Société Jersiaise was formed in 1873. Included in its founding objectives were the creation of a museum and library. Publication of a Bulletin Annual commenced in 1875, and an annex to the society’s second Annual Report for 1876 drew the attention of members to the importance of a number of important subjects including, ‘Recording in permanent photography local prehistoric monuments, buildings and ruins.’

With the practice and collecting of photography already identified as priorities, these activities were continued as significant parts of the society’s museum and library. Multiple interests in the medium of photography, as a method for recording research, as documentary and scientific records and as an independent art form are actively maintained by society members to the present day. These patterns of development, established over more than 140 years, have resulted in the accumulation of a photographic archive which is remarkable in its insular context.

Thomas Sutton

Thomas Sutton, who opened a photographic studio in Jersey in 1847, the year after graduating from Cambridge University, is one of the most important people in the history of world photography. He took the world’s first permanent colour photograph in 1861, and invented the single lens reflex camera in the same year. He also developed the first panoramic camera with a wide-angle lens.

In 1859 Sutton developed the earliest panoramic camera with a wide-angle lens. The lens consisted of a glass sphere filled with water, which projected an image onto a curved plate. The camera was capable of capturing an image in a 120 degree arc.Another photographic development was the first single lens reflex camera, in 1861. He was also the photographer for James Clerk Maxwell’s early experiments in color photography and in 1861 took the world’s first permanent color photograph of a Tartan ribbon. Maxwell directed Sutton to take three photographs of the ribbon, through red, green, and blue filters. The plates were developed and projected on a screen by three projectors, each with the same color filter used to take its photograph. When brought together in focus, a full-color image was formed. He also worked on the development of dry photographic plates.

Website links

theislandwiki.org

Photographic Archive

https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/what-is-the-future-of-the-photo-archive/

Introduction

‘Our mission is to produce and facilitate research on the Island’s history, culture, language and environment; and to share that knowledge with the widest possible audience for the benefit of our island community.’ Reflects how The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive association is committed to illustrating the island history and the important events that have occurred in time. Furthermore, it demonstrates that they are encouraging the expansion of their knowledge to all groups of individuals as they clearing have a lot of knowledge and understanding that they would like to share with the public.

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From looking back at photographic archives from the past we can get a better understanding of the lives of people that have previously lived in the Island and how this is different to our modern lifestyles today. Further evidence that our lives have changed can be found in everyone’s personal archives, for example some carry journals/ diaries to literately document their lives. The easiest modern way we keep an archive of our experiences is our phone albums, as they are easily accessible and can hold ten of thousands of images.

Henry Mullins

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Being one of the first major establishers of La Société Jersiaise, Henry Mullins is one of the most influential members of the association, originally working in London during from 1840 and later moving to Jersey in 1848, Mullins set up his studio at the royal square with his partner Mr Millward. He created his personal Photographic Portrait Room at his archive site at the Royal Square and the purpose of the studio was to span three decades and produce at least 20,000 images, including two albums of Calotypes, containing about 10,000 portraits dating from 1850 to the early 1870s, now in the Société collection. This was only set up as his he originally got members of the public to want their portrait taken by him, this is how Mullins ended up with such a large collection of photographs. From looking and analysing Henry Mullins’ work we can gather an understanding of the different types of people living in Jersey from 1848 to 1883 after he had passed away. There is evidence of a wide variety of lifestyles as Mullins’ photographed individuals in many different professions such as soldiers, nurses and even people in the highest and power. Such as having the honour of photographing Queen Victoria I with the Duke and Duchess of York.

This photo, taken in the 19th century is one of Mullins’ most famous pieces of work, as it documents one of the most influential individuals of the century, and someone with very high power and authority. This demonstrates the lives of members of the royal families and this piece could be showing Queen Victoria in the publics eyes. As it illustrates the high standards that the public would have expected her to practise in her reign, such as always meeting royal expectations and procedures. This is implied as the viewer can see how perfect she is just from evaluating her clothing, hair and even the background of the photograph. The image is filled with evidence, such as the furniture, that helps us imply information about royal families at the time, the setting of this piece is important to note as the wealth is shown not just through the monarch herself, but through her assets.

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Archives are valued sources of physical information about the history of Jersey (in this case), they help to tell stories through photographs. These can be stories about individual people, explaining aspects of their lives such as their upbringing, or simple their current identities. Photographic archives provide easy access and materials in order to gather an understanding of the different social class during a specific period of time. For example, the divide between the proletariat and the bourgeoise during the 1910s, at time at which the distinction between employees and employers was exceedingly evident.

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Additionally, archives they could represent major events from which have occurred in the past, helping to teach younger people the value of history, including the challenging times their ancestors may have had to encounter. Another positive aspects of learning about archives is they have given me inspiration for my own final project as it helps emphasise the need to learn about the past visually and not just thought written works. This means that I now have a visual understanding of the types of images to put into my own work such as zines and maybe even my own final project if I were to create an archive of my current and past photography work.

Moodboard

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Artist Reference: Koh Myung Keun 

Koh Myung Keun is a Korean, Seoul-based modern and contemporary artist and photographer born in 1964, whos work begins with the inquiry of “defining truth”. He has held multiple solo and group exhibitions featuring his work, ranging from a focus on the ” ideal human figure” as to “create fiction”, to a focus on the Asian cities visited by him, creating unique looking landscapes of those areas.

He uses sculptures made from semi-transparent layers of digital prints, made from film laminated with plastic, to give his sculptures a memorable effect when viewing them. The name of his ‘Blending Space’ exhibition perfectly describes his works, especially the landscape-focused ones, as he seems to blend the images together with his technique of placing the images together

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A video of Koh Myung Keun describing his works.

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Similarities and Differences between his Works

Koh Myung Keun’s work usually involves his signature use of semi-transparent material, which gives his photographs a physical structure, but at the same time (especially when using more than one photograph), makes the images themselves lose regular structure and become something more abstract. Koh Myung Keun also tends to change up the shape of the sculptures between each one, giving the sculptures a sense of originality, however, if one of the works is within a series, then it may be likely that he will use a similar, or the same, shape.

One clear difference between his works is that in some sculptures he puts and emphasis on the human body/form (such as Body House 9) and tries to make an abstract image using little colour and soft lines, while others, he uses more industrial landscape scenes such as a building face or interior, which tend to use more colour and harsher shapes/lines (such as Building 62). Some of his works include more natural and cultural subject matter (such as Buddha 1). I think it is interesting that he named a series of his body-focussed works ‘Body House’, as ‘body’ and ‘house’ seem to contrast with each other thematically, however the ‘house’ part of the name comes from the structure itself, while the ‘body’ takes from the photograph itself.

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Image/Sculpture Analysis

This sculpture appears to be made up of four sides, each with the same photograph. Due to this and the semi-transparent nature of the images, a 3D effect is created, this is especially apparent with the washing line, as it seems to fully form a square with an appropriate depth. The shape of the sides gives the sculpture a sense of verticality, which allows the photograph to inherit this sense of verticality, as it allows for a taller frame. This shows much more of the building than what would have been seen if Koh Myung Keun had used a square, since the second floor and leaves that seem to adorn it would be cut out. The photographs themselves seem to be taken from the second floor, giving the lower half of the image a downwards viewpoint. Due to the images being printed onto semi-transparent material, the image’s colour has slightly faded, I think this fits with the image itself, as it gives it a softer look that pairs well with the homely subject matter of the image. The palette is fairly limited, with the image being made up mainly of greys, reds and greens, all of these colours have a fairly warm tone.