Built in the 16th and 17th centuries, Elizabeth Castle (Lé Châté Lîzabé) is about half a mile off the coast of St. Helier and was made when the existing fortress at Mont Orgueil was no longer capable of defending the Island and the port of St. Helier was vulnerable to attack by ships armed with cannons. The castle was named after Queen Elizabeth I as she was the reigning monarch at the time of the construction. It has been to many monarch including King Charles II when he was fleeing the English Civil War.
The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive is a historical collection of photographs related to Jersey, it was established by the Société Jersiaise which focuses on the island’s history, culture, and heritage. The archive has its origins in the late 19th century when the society recognised the importance of preserving visual records of the island’s past. Over the years, the archive has grown significantly and now includes a vast collection of over 125,000 photographs representing various eras, from the earliest days of photography to the present. The images document Jersey’s landscapes, people, architecture, and daily life, providing valuable insights into the island’s history and evolution. Looking at pictures from the past, we can learn a great deal about our islands social, economic, and cultural development. Photographs capture moments in time, offering a look into the island’s changing landscapes, architecture, fashion, transportation, and societal norms. Archiving and organising our personal images and text messages is increasingly important and frequent in the digital age. These archives can reveal a lot about an individual’s life and experiences. On a societal level, the way we archive and manage digital information speaks to our technological advancements and understanding of our future. As technology evolves, so do our methods of organising and preserving digital records, reflecting broader trends and values.
William Collie, born in 1810 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, lived in Jersey from 1850 to 1878 where he lived in Belmont Road and Bath Street, he became one of the photographic paper print pioneers. He was one of the first photographers in Jersey to use the calotype after he started his career in portrait painting. One of his most popular works is the “French and Jersey Market Women” collection which is the oldest set of images (signed and dated) taken in Jersey, over 174 years ago. The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive lists 157 photographs by William Collie, however none of them can be viewed online. His photography was a mixture of candid and professional portraits as he explored lower- and upper-class subjects and how they lived in Jersey. He used their working or living environment and their clothing as a way to show the heavy separation between classes in the 19th century. As Collie was one of the only photographers at the time, his images are some of the only ways to visually understand this time period. The image below is one of the earliest photographs printed on paper, it is Collie’s portrait of Jersey market women in 1847.
Made in 1962, La Jetée is a French science fiction short film which was constructed entirely by still, black and white images. 28 minutes long and directed by Chris Marker, it follows a man is trapped in an aftermath of world war 3 in Paris. Scientists research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods “to call past and future to the rescue of the present.”
The featurettes cast includes:
Jean Négroni as Narrator
Hélène Châtelain as The Woman
Davos Hanich as The Man
Jacques Ledoux as The Experimenter
Ligia Branice as Woman From The Future
Janine Kleina as Woman From The Future
William Klein as Man From The Future
Chris Marker, a French director, writer, photographer, and poet who is famous for A Grin Without a Cat (1977) and Sans Soleil (1983), as well as La Jetée (1962). While making La Jetée, he was also in the process of making a 150 minute documentary essay-film called Le joli mai which was released in 1963. In the documentary, he interviewed random people on the Paris streets with the questions ranging from their personal lives, as well as social and political issues of relevance at that time.
Founded in 1873, Société Jersiaise is an organisation with the sole purpose of:
“The Publication of Local History,
The encouragement of the use of French, the official language,
The study of the ancient local dialect,
To achieve, as far as possible, the conservation of all prehistoric and historical sites,
To found a library, mainly historical and archaeological,
To collaborate with other societies with similar aims“
They have an annual bulletin which was first published in 1875.
“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.”
– Société Jersiaise
The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive contains, as a result of the foresight of early members, by far the most important collection of historic photographic images of the island. A professional photographic archivist is employed by the Société to manage the collection of approximately 100,000 images dating from the mid-1840s to the present day.
A sentence – photographs taken from around Dunster Castle.
A paragraph – I have taken multiple photographs from around Dunster Castle. It is a former motte and bailey castle, now a country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo-Saxon period.
NARRATIVE:How will you tell your story?
I will try to tell my story by ordering the images based on the chronological order they were taken while watching them on colour and dimension. I want to show off the beauty and history of the castle
Zines are self-made, printed set of images used to tell a story. The word comes from the word “magazine” as it follows the same style, and sometimes layout.
Some of the most famous photography zines:
Chloe Sevigny — No Time For Love.
Daniel Arnold — Photos.
Hamburger Eyes — Celly Brain.
Ari Marcopolous — Directory.
This is my zine mood board:
My zine will be 5.8”x 8.2” and have 16 pages but zines can be any shape and size.
My first attempt of making a photographic spread on InDesign:
What I liked about this first spread is how the pictures have been placed. The colours and photographs create a separation between the main/dominant images and the text and smaller images.
My second attempt of making a photographic spread on InDesign:
I really liked how my first one was placed so decided to copy these and just add onto it. I started off by adding a coloured shadow behind the four smaller images on the top half. I then added a brown border to the text because I wanted to incorporate all of the colours in the images onto the paper.
My last InDesign attempt:
I decided to have a small play around with the layout so changed where the text and images were. By doing this I created a diagonal idea with the text and smaller images being on the opposite sides to each other.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was born 22 August 1908 in Chanteloup-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, France to a wealthy family. Henri studied at Cambridge from 1929 where he studied art, literature, an English before then returning to France. He is considered to be the father of photojournalism and one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century.
Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the term ‘decisive moment’ which refers to “the moment when all the elements in a photograph come together perfectly to create a meaningful image.”
“For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to ‘give a meaning’ to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson, ‘the decisive moment’
Originally named Images à la Sauvette (“images on the run”), his book showcases his best work over the years from his portfolio.
