These are the pictures we took at Elizabeth castle. Majority of them were successful outcomes, as the quality of the images are quite high. The weather was very overcast on the day we went which was an advantage for us for the soft, even lighting and no harsh shadows. It also helped set the the mood of our images, the dimmer lighting representing the dark times the soldiers went through during the wars.
I imported all the images from the shoot onto light room classic, then looked through them and selected the best outcomes, worthy of editing.
For our film, we plan on only using still images. This is because although we did get the chance to film some of the castle, none of the clips came out the way we expected. They were all bad quality, so we made the right decision of making our film from still images.
The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive was founded in January 1873 by a small number of Islanders who were interested in the history of Jersey. Included in this was a museum and a library. Their first Bulletin Annuel was issued in 1875 and continues to be the main record of our activities.
A photographic archive is a collection of photographs, often with accompanying materials in other formats, in the course of daily life, individuals and organizations create and keep information about their personal and business activities. These records, and the places they are kept, are called “archives.”Archives have been used throughout human history and they have been very helpful among historians who are studying a specific era in human history.These days, while archives still remain in use, digital archives are now very well used and are much easier and quicker to access, digital ones contain images, documents and many more things that you wouldn’t be allowed to even touch in a physical archive. Although technology is more popular nowadays, physical archives are still the most useful as they have been used for many centuries, as one of Man’s most reliable resources for information.
The Société Jersiaise focuses on Jersey history and has everything about it ranging from what the Island looked like hundreds of years ago to peoples’ registration cards during the Occupation. They achieve this through their active Sections, research collections, community outreach and collaboration with local and international heritage partners, The Société’s Sections specialise in various fields of study, from archaeology to zoology.
Ernest Baudoux, one of the photographers on the Societe Archive produced a panorama of St Helier, soon after his arrival to Jersey. The process he used to create the image is particularly interesting, the process he used required considerable skill. Producing “wet collodion” images on location required a mobile (often horse drawn) darkroom in which plates could be coated and sensitised, exposed while still wet, and developed immediately. The panorama shows the architecture of St Helier in tremendous detail. Numerous of Baudoux studio portraits were produced with a sliding plate mechanism designed to give two exposures on one glass negative.Later following by choosing the best images he often removed the ‘reject’ by marking it with a cross. Having selected his preferred image, Baudoux retouched the negative to enhance the complexion of the subject and conceal facial blemishes. This effect shows that the practice of photographic manipulation originated long before the digital age.
Chris Marker, (1921-2012) was a French filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor and multi-media artist who has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. Marker’s La Jetée is one of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made, a tale of time travel. What makes the film interesting for the purposes of this discussion, is that while in editing terms it uses the language of cinema to construct its narrative effect, it is composed entirely of still images showing imagesfrom the featureless dark of the underground caverns of future Paris, to the intensely detailed views across the ruined city, and the juxtaposition of destroyed buildings with the spire of the Eiffel Tower.
What is the story behind La Jetee?
La Jetee is about a man that is sent back and forth, in and out of time in an experiment that attempts to unravel the fate and the solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world during the aftermath of WW3. The experiment results in him getting caught up in a never ending memories of past events which are recreated on an airport’s viewing pier. What makes the film interesting for the purposes of this discussion, is that while in editing terms it uses the language of cinema to construct its narrative effect, it is composed entirely of still images showing imagesfrom the featureless dark of the underground caverns of future Paris, to the intensely detailed views across the ruined city, and the juxtaposition of destroyed buildings with the spire of the Eiffel Tower.
No place like home takes as its starting point a subject of increasing concern and tension in the 21st century, affecting all aspects of society and identity. 23 acclaimed artists cast multiple threads of inquiry to consider the idea of home for this exhibition.
Société Jersiaise is an archive of photos that contains the History, culture, environment and language of Jersey. There is about 35,000 historical images archived here, some of their photos and information goes back further than 1873, which was the year it was founded. There is an extensive library there where the archive publishes books about the photos for people to get, handy for any historians on the island who want to learn more about the history of Jersey.
Here are some photos of our recent visit:
History:
In 1992 the Photographic Archive (SJPA) was established to implement appropriate collections management policies for the photographic collections held by the Société Jersiaise Library. From its foundation, the Société actively encouraged the use of photography in achieving its aims, resulting in the natural accrual of photographic materials.
The collection acted as both a repository of research resources relating to Jersey, and as a record of the work carried out by the Société’s Sections and Departments. The SJPA is responsible for over 140,000 records and is Jersey’s primary repository for photographic materials; as described in the shared collections management policy between Jersey Heritage and the Société Jersiaise, which came into effect in 2019.
Elizabeth castle was built in 1601, making it 422 years old. Construction was started in the 16th century when the power of the cannon meant that the existing stronghold at Mont Orgueil was insufficient to defend the Island and the port of St. Helier was vulnerable to attack by ships armed with cannons.
The British government withdrew the garrison and relinquished the castle to the States of Jersey in 1923. The States then opened it to the public as a museum. During the Second World War the Germans, who occupied the Channel Islands, modernized the castle with guns, bunkers and battlements.
How was the castle made?
Construction of the earliest parts of the castle, the Upper Ward including the Queen Elizabeth Gate, began in 1594. This work was carried out by the Flemish military engineer Paul Ivy.
The Lower Ward was constructed, between 1626 and 1636, on the site of the ruined Abbey church. This area of the castle became a parade ground, surrounded by a barrack building and officers’ quarters. Wells and cisterns for water existed within this area
In 1651, a windmill was constructed half-way between Fort Charles and the Lower Ward. In the same year, the Parliamentarian forces landed in Jersey and bombarded the castle with mortars. The destruction of the medieval Abbey church in the heart of the castle complex which had been used as the storehouse for ammunition and provisions forced Carteret to surrender on 15 December 1651 after being besieged for seven weeks.[4] Jersey was held by Parliamentarians for the next nine years until the restoration of the monarchy.
A 1651 depiction of the Castle
In 1668, or shortly afterwards, King William’s Gate was constructed, which is located between the Outer Ward, and Lower Ward.
After doing some research and gathering facts about the castle, I want to base our film off the architecture of the castle, including things like the walls, archways, the different layers of the castle and so on. This interests me as although it may just look like basic walls and buildings, they have way more history behind them. I think this will make a good film.
My zine is going to be based off the photos i took and images i made in St Malo. I carefully selected my images and cut them down to what i think are my strongest images. After i did this i edited them using different tools including cropping and changing the angle of some images.
I’ve decided to make all the images in my zine black and white. My strongest images from the shoot are all of inside the walled city; the images are interesting however, they all have the same boring color theme going on of different beige and brown tones. using black and white, i am able to bring out the darker and lighter tones in the images, maybe even exaggerating them, this defines the photos. I want my zine to tell a story in a way that color doesn’t distract the viewer from the images beauty.
When we were in St Malo I was fascinated by the architecture of the walls and the buildings, how it had been made etc. Due to this i decided to take most of my images of the buildings and less of, say, people.
I want my zine to represent the history of the architecture in and around the walled city. This is another reason I’ve chosen to put my images in black and white, to represent that the walls of St Malo are an ancient artifact that have more historical meaning then just a tourist attraction.
I plan on possibly involving text on the pages of my zine. This will include a title on the front cover and then maybe some information on the background of St Malo.
A zine is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. The idea behind a zine is that you express your intentions in some sort of “pamphlet-esque” or “book-like” form.
Whats the difference between a zine and a magazine?
Although the word “zine” is derived from “magazine,” the two publications are significantly different. A zine is often made by a single person or a small group of individuals whenever they feel like it, as opposed to a magazine which needs an editorial team and a fixed publishing schedule.
In short, a zine is a Do-It-Yourself pamphlet publication that can be endlessly reproduced. Zines are usually not unique, one-of-a-kind creations. Zines range from seriously reverent political treatises to wildly idiosyncratic personal musings. Many zines are like diaries or letters, and many others are like mini research papers.
Examples of Zines:
Topic of my zine
We are creating a zine on the topic of St Malo. We will be using our images that we took during the St Malo trip that we edited. Also, we used dreamstudio and photoshop to experiment with producing AI images. I used my St Malo images to do this so depending on all my final outcomes, i might use them for my zine.
We went to St Malo for a day trip for our street photography project. The setting was perfect for street photography as we were in the walls of st malo, lots of little side street and people around.
My images and final out comes:
I decided to make this image black and white after editing it a bit, this is because the light in the sky was a bit too bright against the light colored buildings, black and white works better.
I like this image both ways as the colors in the coloured image really stand out, like the red on the mans shirt, and give the image some character. However, I made the choice to put it in black and white as it makes the image more authentic. It also emphasizes the focal point of the couple.
This image isn’t my strongest one as it is quite blurry, but as I’ve edited it and tempered with different settings, I’ve seen it from a different point of view. It kind of works as an action shot as it is only a bit blurry, also, the lady in the image ( the focal point), she isn’t looking at the camera at all as it wasn’t a staged photo. I like this about the image. I decided to put this in black and white because it distracts from the clutter in the image.
I like the composition of this image. It sort of appears staged as the man on the right is stood in a good position, however, its not. We began photographing in St Malo in the morning through to the afternoon so we were able to make images in the prime sun time. This photo was taken in the morning when the lighting was good.
This is one of my favourite images i took out of them all. I captured this old couple walking and it’s almost like they are foreshadowing the couple in the background of the image. This mage works well in colour as there’s lots of bright, vibrant colours in it; he yellow cap and pink shirt of the man on the left draws attention to the viewers.
This image juxtaposes itself. The foreground and background are highly contrasting. I placed a yellow line in the image to show the two different parts of the image. In the background (top of the yellow line) the buildings appear old and auethentic, the architecture of them is from a long time ago. This is because that building is really old, same with all the buildings and walls around St Malo, this is also why that particular part of St Malo worked really well for street photography.
-The St Malo town was built in 1689 by French King Louis XIV’s master military architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the massive fortress was primarily intended to protect Saint-Malo from the British.
On the other hand, the foreground of the image (below the yellow line) is very modern. You can see clothing shops and cafes, even the people in the image contrast with the background as their fashion is modern day.
After editing this image, i found it resembles Robert Franks’ work.He captures images of people, however, some of his images are staged. The images that aren’t staged captured the moment of people in their everyday life.
I captured this image of 3 women walking in the streets of St Malo. Although the image is a bit blurry, i think it works really well and adds context to the image. The blurriness shows that i was mobile when i took this image and therefore captured these women in the moment clearly having a nice time.
I decided to put this image in black and white to distract from the clutter and over stimulating colours, the blur was enough.
I like this image of a little vintage shop I took. The colours accentuate the image. The spacing and layout of the image naturally works really well. I edited the saturation of the colours in the image and that is why the colours appear exaggerated.
I took this image from above. I thought id experiment with a different angle and composition.
