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.