Henry Mullins is one of the most prolific photographers represented in the Société Jersiase photo-archive. He has produced over 9,000 portraits of islanders in jersey channel island from 1852 to 1873 at a time when the population was around 55,000. The records of his work comes from his albums, in which he placed his clients in a social hierarchy which basically means he categorized them depending on their class. The arrangement of Mullins’ portraits of ‘who’s who’ in 19th century Jersey are highly politicised.
Henry Mullins started working at 230 Regent Street in London in the 1840s and then shortly moved to Jersey in July 1848, where he set up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. In his studio he would photograph Jersey political elite (The Bailiff, Lt Governor, Jurats, Deputies etc), mercantile families (Robin, Janvrin, Hemery, Nicolle and more) military officers and professional classes (advocates, bankers, clergy, doctors etc).
Mood board:
Diamond Cameo: The Patent Diamond Cameo photograph was registered by F.R. Window of London in 1864. It is basically four small oval portraits ,usually 1″ x 3/4“, were placed on a carte de visite in the shape of a diamond. Each portrait of the subject are headshot photographed in a different position.
