Mind map & Mood board

Observe

Definition: To observe is to carefully watch with attention to detail or behaviour for its significance.

Synonyms: Notice, see, perceive, remark, detect, discover, behold, discover, spectator, bystander.

Antonyms: Overlook, disregard, ignore.

Ideas and Artists: Street photography and Henri Cartier Bresson.

Seek

Definition: Seeking is an attempt to find someone or something.

Synonyms: Search, pursue, strive, request, explore, follow, inquire, chase.

Antonyms: conceal, hide, neglect, ignore, idle.

Ideas and Artists: Archives and history.

Challenge

Definition: A Challenge is something new and difficult which requires great effort and determination. Also means proving or justifying through a contest.

Synonyms: Dare, opposition, ultimatum, confront, dispute, objection, protest.

Antonyms: Compliance, acceptance, approval, believe, support, fear.

Ideas and Artists: Cindy Sherman, propaganda posters.

Ideas

I like how Rogan brown uses textures to create the appearance and a mixture of colours/ monochrome to create artwork resembling living forms such as bacteria.

An additional idea I have came from the word ‘observe’ and ideas from Anthropocene as well as looking at work from Rogan Brown. I would start by observing people as they are and what they wear acting as a window to comment on trends, waste and materials. Once I’ve gained a better idea I would take images in a studio to reflect the mirror approach to ‘challenge’ . These images be made to resemble that from a fashion magazine with unnecessary accessories, fast fleeting trends and excessive waste with lots of animal patterns and textures.

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These types of posters were created to challenge ideals and act as propaganda. They use collages of images, striking colours and symbols to create a clear message. Formed an influential wave of art called the The Russian avant-garde.

I’ve had some ideas relating to propaganda and how hyperbolic they are are in imagery. To comment on both the subtlety and pompous approaches I could make some work which demonstrates how extreme and ridiculous some points that are made. While propaganda is commonly associated with war and recruitment as this was the most blatant and obvious however it is everywhere especially when the current political landscape is filled with ridiculous radical views that I could pick apart.

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Collages can be traced back to Picasso who’s work was much more subjective and abstract.

This experimental style created unique pieces which challenge ideals and innovated aesthetics of the time. Collages like these remind me more of posters which for challenging especially when confronting and protesting. Some ideas I’ve had has been combining history and modern images to showcase how places/people are products of both current influences and moments through the past. For example a building that has fallen into disarray in recent years might be infested with birds but quite a few years ago was extremely well used and had an extension added. I would combine images from archives of the building, images of past holders, images of bird nests and even images of the landscape to create a full picture of the ‘personality’ of the building. This would carry over ideas from landscapes and environmental portraits and resemble a piece more like Picassos collages then the propaganda. I worry this idea would require too much time on one collage and I would only have one fully fledged outcome by the end. I could create a small zine of each part of the collage to better show the makeup of this final image however I don’t want to limit myself to one building through this whole project. If the building was something larger like fort regent which has changed massively throughout the years, then there would be too much to combine into one piece however something smaller like one well used house might be too small.

An additional approach could be to combine a larger area such as flats/town/listed buildings and create a collage more like Beomsik Won’s which combine all the buildings into one larger body. This reminds me of ideas explored in Anthropocene which I would like to explore further.

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When reading through the exam booklet one line stood out to me: “For example, swifts outmanoeuvring insects on the wing…
birds and caterpillars stripping plants down to their stalks.” Insects are something that I and many other people have mixed feelings of as they are both essential for our ecosystems while also being really freaky. Arachnophobia is one of the most common fears. Insects when photographed are photographed in a way that resembles flowers in my opinion. I will be portraying bugs in the opposite way as something unnerving. Additionally the lines: “search parties, seances, ghosts, graveyards, churches, mosques, stone circles, universities.” gave me the idea of horror. I would like to make tiny insects large and formidable with shadows and themes. Additionally “Douglas Gordon created a film lasting 24 hours by slowing down Hitchcock’s Psycho, with
the intention of making us more aware of the nature of film itself.” also inspired this idea as instead of creating a film I would showcase these themes through still images. Psycho is a classic which has continued to inspire films not just in the horror genre still to this day.

Cindy Sherman also used film stills which I explored previously. I enjoyed this topic and I think this approach could work well as these images will act as mirrors.

I aim to use lighting techniques I learned from both still life and portraiture as well as natural lighting when outside from street photography as shadows are heavily associated with horror.

Still life

For still life I was inspired by Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan. Walker Evans photographed mundane house tools to turn them into a spectacle while Darren Harvey-Regan combined two generic tools in separate images to create a unique pieces. While I’m not sure I will be developing images like these further, I would like to include some still life in some regard.

If I do take still life, they will likely be single images in front of a white background. They will be different objects with a different theme. From this project I will be using the different lighting techniques I learned. I haven’t done much with objects however I think the outcomes had varying success.

Portraits

Cindy Sherman took staged environmental portraits like this one. This worked as an environmental portrait of a character. Her work tells a story about a person and how their environment shows that.

I liked working on this project and I think my outcomes were successful. I would like to experiment further with this as I believe it could work as an interesting way to evaluate an idea. I did like my outcomes however going forwards I would like to create more as I only really had one good photoshoot for this project.

Street Photography

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a pioneer in the street photography space. His work never interfered and acted as observations instead. He believed in the decisive moment and photographing fleeting moments. I do like how these photographs look and the process of taking them however I would be shifting my focus.

I think I had varying success with my street photography. I enjoyed this project some outcomes were pretty decent. If I did continue these ideas, I wouldn’t focus so much on the decisive moment and instead a specific theme.

Photography as we know it was created with two entirely different processes: the Daguerreotype and the Calotype. One could be described as a ‘mirror’ and the other a ‘window’, a theory created by John Szarkowski. “the distance between is to be measured not in terms of the relative force or originality of their work, but in terms of their conceptions of what a photograph is: is it a mirror, … or a window?”¹ The Daguerreotype, created by Louis Daguerre, acts as a mirror. This is both in a literal sense, being created with metals and glass, but also in a more subjective matter. A mirror is a synthetic, staged and manipulated while also holding personal meaning. A Daguerreotype only yields one final product (kept in a wooden box lined with velvets) which will result in more manipulation in the pre-production. The final outcome is a highly personal and unique ‘mirrored memory’. As the photographs were largely portraits resembling paintings it was a long process requiring manipulation of pose and expression. Additionally a mirror “reflects a portrait of the artist who made it”². Louis Daguerre not only named his process after himself but also released his findings months after Henry Fox Talbot as direct competition making the Daguerreotype inherently a mirror of himself. The Calotype, created by Henry Fox Talbot, is the opposite in many ways. It represents the window meaning documentary, authenticity and realism. These images are objective, like looking through a window which is described as: “through which one might better know the world?”³ A calotype creates a negative which can be mass produced meaning the images produced are more public and less private then a Daguerreotype.

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This image, by Szarkowski’s system, is a window. It acts as a snapshot of a road in Los Angeles in 1969. This image is a style of street photography and showcases realism. Realism is the accurate and detailed depiction of life. Garry Winogrand philosophy when it comes to photographs should clearly align with windows as he does not interfere and doesn’t believe in inserting himself and his motivations into his photographs. Additionally this photograph is like literally looking through a window. It is an authentic view of the streets of Los Angeles in 1969, letting us “better know the world” ⁴ as all ‘windows’ do. However the process of taking a photograph requires some level of a personal response. The photographer must see and decide to want to take the photograph, unconsciously letting bias influence the images. Jed Perl stated that “A photograph provides … an “autobiographical” response to a realist situation.”⁵ No image is going to fit either group perfectly. Despite how much this image might seem to fit the ‘Window’ group, no image is entirely separate from the photographer.

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This image is a mirror. It was taken by Cindy Sherman of herself making it an obvious reflection. It is manipulated as she was photographing herself to reflect film stills, meaning she was embodying a character and acting a part. Since a mirror “reflects a portrait of the artist who made it”⁶ This image fits the category by reflecting her own opinions and feelings towards being a woman such as the glamour as well as expectations she might feel influenced by such as cooking/cleaning in a kitchen making it subjective and personal. Jed Perl stated that “The very technology of photography contains an admission that the “world exists independent of human attention” —a photograph is, after all, a record of nature, of the world’s lights and shadows.”⁷ This means that all images are in some way a documenting the subject. This means that even if the subject is ‘manipulated’, all photographs are real and in some ways a ‘window’ as a camera cannot lie. What a photograph shows cannot be a ‘lie’ and accurately shows what it was pointed at regardless of whether or not the subject was adjusted previously.

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All images are in a way both mirrors and windows. Although a form of categorising these images can be helpful and make ‘reading’ them easier there is a dilemma that no image will fit one category completely. The categories works better as a spectrum however as all images are varying levels of objective and subjective as the categories are set on “uncertain foundations”⁸. Jed Perl stated that photography should be viewed as an “abstract art.”⁹ as abstract art doesn’t attempt to represent external reality and uses colours, shapes and textures to achieve its purpose. It isn’t easily categorised between two binary opposites. Both of these images cover similar themes and showcase American women around the 1970s. Both could act as a representation of the time period acting as documentary snapshots. Both showcase glamour and tell a similar story. Cindy Sherman’s image seems much more personal and intimate as it is just her in her kitchen. It feels like were getting to know her character. Garry Winogrand however is looking at the women from a distance. Its not personal and we don’t feel as though we get to know the women. Both images are very different and would sit on opposite ends of the spectrum but don’t appear like polar opposites instead just seem like slightly different approaches to tell a similar story. The images shouldn’t be shoehorned into a category since “The possibilities of photography, like the possibilities of any art, are as great or as small as the visions of artists.”¹⁰

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1. John Szarkowski, 1978 ↩︎
2. John Szarkowski, 1978 ↩︎
3. John Szarkowski, 1978 ↩︎
4. John Szarkowski, 1978 ↩︎
5. Jed Perl, 1978. Mirrors And Windows: Messages From Moma. ↩︎
6. John Szarkowski, 1978 ↩︎
7. Jed Perl, 1978. Mirrors And Windows: Messages From Moma. ↩︎
8. Jed Perl, 1978. Mirrors And Windows: Messages From Moma. ↩︎
9. Jed Perl, 1978. Mirrors And Windows: Messages From Moma. ↩︎
10. Jed Perl, 1978. Mirrors And Windows: Messages From Moma. ↩︎

The exhibition Mirrors and Windows was created by John Szarkowaski in The museum of Modern Art. Mirrors and Windows are used to act as binary opposites. Mirrors ‘Reflect a portrait of the artist who made it’. They are:

• Subjective
• A Self-Reflection
• Tableaux
• Romanticism
• Synthetic
• Staged
• Manipulated
• Acts as a projection of the self on the world.

Windows are ‘Through which one might better know the world?’ They are:

• Objective
• Documentary
• Authentic
• Reality
• Straight
• Public
• Act as a view into the exterior world explored authentically.

Example:

This is an image taken by Robert Heinecken which I believe represents the mirror.

Robert Heinecken was an artist who created surreal sculptures based on the idea of juxtaposition with re-purposed images from magazines and product packaging. On first glance, his work could seem like conceptual art however he dubbed himself a ‘paraphotographer’ due to his work in darkrooms and alteration of images despite rarely taking the images himself.

This image is a Mirror for numerous reasons. One being that there is no clear cut meaning to this image making interpretations dependant on the person. This subjectivity makes it a mirror. Had this image been taken differently and it was simply an image of some blocks it could have been a window as it would have been a documentary image. This image however has an image printed onto the blocks which makes it a staged image. Since this image has been heavily manipulated, the photographer has projected himself onto the image also making this image a self reflection and therefore a mirror.

Zine

The final layout was:

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Final prints

For final prints I choose these 5 images:

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I wanted 1 A3, 4 A4s and 1 A5. For A3 I choose the landed boat. A5 was the tower and all the rest were A4.

Evaluation:

Narrative is the way a story is told. It is subjective and can vary between each person telling the same story. A narrative is told by stringing along images in a sequence. You can choose how to portray elements in a story to create a narrative. A story however is a factual account of the events.

Story

In three words id describe the story as:

• Identity
• Work
• History

The story I aim to show in my zine is the day cycle of a fisherman. Work is a big part of someone’s identity which I wanted to showcase with a day/work cycle.

As an island, we were and still are heavily reliant on the sea for import/export of food, amenities and revenue. This would not be possible without workers such as fishermen, ferrymen and sea captains. Having a title and tales however does not exclude these individuals from the mundane and unexciting day like everyone else.

Narrative

I will be using archival image’s and my own images. I will be using minimal text and typography.

Zine creation and selection

I have two images with pops of colour in this set which I might not keep since they stand out too much against the other monochrome images. Additionally I will need to remove some of the portraits as I am limited because the zine will have a total of 20 pages. Some pages could have multiple images on them but I also want to include some archival images so I will make my final selections based on those.

The archive images I found related to the harbour and merchants were the following:

I didn’t take many images of the whole harbour to compare with the old ones however the portraits would make for nice comparisons. I think that because my story focuses on how trade has changed, comparing to old images would be beneficial to the overall narrative.

Paper mock up

I created a paper mock up to begin sequencing my images to construct a narrative. I knew I wanted a flow from the people to the actual job and boats which would end with the buildings. I knew I also wanted to include older archival images to show how this cycle has been carried out in part throughout the history of our marine endeavours.

Design and Layout

Pages

I grouped these two images together as they were both grounded boats but since they had different shapes I wanted to try different sizes too. I made one full bleed and one smaller for some variety.

I tried a few things for the double portrait spread:

If I was going to include words I would use one where the images were more spread out however I didn’t plant on writing too much so I chose the grid instead.

I added one more portrait to the grid so I could keep one larger.

In order to make each set of pages unique, I also created a double page spread. I chose this image for the double spread because first of all it was landscape but additionally because I thought the image stood out on its own.

For these two pages I was struggling to decide on the layout. The first option was a little too busy however I liked all the images. I tried removing one but then the layout didn’t work at all. Eventually i decided to keep the crane alone which looked better but I decided to try an additional layout.

This option only had both cranes with one spreading over the page. While I liked how unique this looked, I thought there was too much unused space above and below. I liked both options and I was leaning towards the two only so that not all of my pages showed a near full bleed.

I decided to slightly adjust the ratios and move it into the bottom.

I compared 2 layouts. The first kept the cut out and the second did not. I started the first with the window where I could place text in white around the window. For the final I used the pub and I added 2 additional images. In the first layout I had less images and used 2 less pages.

End Page

For the end page I wasnt sure between this image ^ and this image >

For the boots I thought it could show hanging up the wellies for the day to symbolise finishing the job but the window shows being inside a building and looking out over the harbour to reflect on the day. I think the window would make more sense in terms of a story however.

Title page

For these pages I compared two portraits of captains. I was originally going to use the other portrait since the head placement was much more similar however this portrait looked better. This was going to be the first two pages however since I wasn’t sure on the cover I also had the idea of using one image and creating a cut out for the cover to resemble an ID image.

Since my idea for the overall narrative of my story was the identity and work of fishermen, I wanted to show an ID image to start and flip through pages to show the day cycle. I started with the people for identity, moved through boats for work, then cycled through the harbour for an end day reflection and ended on buildings to show leaving work or going home for the day.

In term of a title, I was mulling over options regarding identity and fishermen but couldn’t find one in particular I liked. I used an AI generator to generate some baseline ideas based on the input ‘Marine history and identity’ which came out with:

• Waves of Change: Exploring Marine Identity
• Anchors of the Past: A Journey Through Marine History
• The Sea Within: Understanding Our Maritime Heritage
• Tides of Time: The Evolution of Marine Identity
• Beyond the Horizon: The Legacy of Marine History

The only ones I kind of liked were: Waves of change, tides of time or beyond the horizon but I figured these were too vague. I figured I would used anchor however as it prevents drifting. Its also used as a metaphor for stability. Our history as an island stems from marine technologies which we are more dependant on now then ever with our electricity and foods coming from off-island. Our financial stability also stems from marine trade.

I decided to change the name to something relating to the sea captain on the cover. I wanted to keep the anchor as imagery on the cover instead however I thought it made the cover too busy.

I was struggling to pick a title and though of maybe: Mémoire of a Magister Navis. Mémoire meaning memory and Magister Navis meaning sea captain. However I decided to use Jèrriais instead. I wanted something along the lines of: Story from a Sea Captain = Conte d’un Capitaine d’la Mer or the identity of a Sea Captain = L’Identité d’Un Capitaine d’Mer.

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A camera is objective, so the potential of photography is to turn something ordinary into something extra ordinary through the framing and composition of images. A photographer ‘transforms what is described’ meaning that by framing reality, the photographer is choosing what deserves attention and what needs to be questioned. It is up to the viewer to make sense of it.

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Camera Obscura is the oldest form of photography that massively predates the modern camera. This is set up by using a dark box with a small hole for light. The light will pass through the pin hole and flip the image 180 degrees once it meets a surface, this image is flipped because light always travels in straight lines. A projection like this is not set. The camera obscura is a technique that is still used by artists today. Modern versions are small portable boxes instead of blacked out rooms, for example an artist who wants to paint a large surface with a small A4 sketch would use this technique.

Camera Obscura can be dated back to as early as 400BC by Chinese Philosopher Mo-tzu. He noted early sightings of a projected inverted image in a dark room. It wasn’t until 1604 that ‘Camera Obscura’ was associated with the phenomenon by Johannes Kepler who invented a small, portable box for astronomical observations.

French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was inspired by the camera obscura to create a lasting image. He is notable for creating the first negative in 1816. This negative used paper which was coated in silver chloride. This however was not permanent and would completely darken when exposed to light.

After only temporary success, Niépce founded the process ‘heliography’ meaning ‘sun drawings’. In 1822, the first permanent photographic image was created. This technique was lengthy and started with dissolving bitumen in lavender oil and coating it onto a metal or glass sheet. This and some paper were laid out in the sun and then rinsed off. The result was hardened chemicals in areas of light/dark which could be used for prints.

in 1839, two methods of ‘setting images’ were created: the Calotype, and two months later the Daguerreotype.

English scientist Henry Fox Talbot created the Calotype, meaning ‘beautiful impression’. The Calotype used light reactive chemicals and silver salts (chloride and later iodide) on paper to create a negative with low contrast and textures. This process too around an hour. The production of a negative allowed for mass production of copies.

Louis Daguerre was also a French inventor and released his Daguerreotype as a direct rection to Henry Fox Talbots invention to be a part of the creation of photography. The Daguerreotype was significantly different to the Calotype as it only created one image. These one off images were described as being a ‘mirror of a memory’ and used grains on a metal plate (typically brass or tin) which were soldered together. This process was heavily inspired by Niépce’s heliography.

The Daguerreotype was expensive and time consuming so ultimately lost the race to the Calotype.

Robert Cornelius, an American photographer, took the first self-portrait. This portrait was taken in 1839 as a daguerreotype. This portrait was also the first portrait taken in the United States. Additionally he opened many photography studios and founded many revolutionary techniques to reduce exposure time. His business model made use of lard instead of expensive whale oil leading to brighter results.

Julia Margeret Cameron was another English photographer who photographed many famous Victorians such as Charles Darwin. From around 1863 to 1875 she had amassed a large portfolio of . She has been credited with the production of the first close-ups. She never made commissioned portraits or opened a studio but did show aspirations of a commercial venture with high profile subjects but ultimately did not see profits during her lifetime.

Pictorialism is the intentional style of emphasizing the beauty of the subject matter, tonality, and composition instead of documenting reality, meaning the photographs are staged and manipulated and could sometimes be mistaken as not having a specific focus. This style was popular throughout the 19th century and continued in smaller relevance until the end of the world wars.

Carte-de-Visit was a format of portrait first used by louis Dodero in 1851. The name however was patented by André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri, a French man in 1854. The name means ‘visiting card’ as it was the same size as a post card and were sent between friends and family. A photographer who used this format was Henry Mullins; the the most prolific first wave photographer in jersey from 1848 to 1873. He owned a studio in royal square and readily changed his technique with changing innovations. He used the Carte-de-Visit style a

Richard Maddox, an English physician, invented the lightweight gelatin negative dry plates in 1871. Before this discovery, Maddox used photography to study micro-organisms under a microscope. His health however declined with his exposure to the wet conditions caused by previous photographic processes. He discovered that sensitizing chemicals cadmium bromide and silver nitrate could be used with gelatine to create the first functioning dry press.

George Eastman, an American entrepreneur, founded Kodak (Eastman Kodak Company) in 1888. This was the first use of roll film readily accessible for the general public making amateur photography easier to pick up. He patented the film roll in 1885 but didn’t release the cameras until 1888. The roll had 100 exposures pre rolled unto the camera and could be handed back to the company who would develop the images for $10.

Kodak held a monopoly over the film stock market and in 1900, the Brownie camera was released and marketed to children. It was a cardboard box sold at the price of $1 or 5 shillings ( £27 today) with cheap film roll and processing which massively surpassed its marketing goals. This camera reached beyond its initial market of children and served as a good way of enticing amateurs as the price was a fraction of previous models such as the Pocket Kodak which costed a standard families months wages. This low price made it easy to pick up and gift. Despite the cheaper production, when used properly the brownie could still produce good photographs. Soldiers took the devices into world war 1 in conjunction with other Kodak models. Kodak took advantage of the broader appeal and released several different editions.

Film photography was pioneered by George Eastman but did not remain exclusive to Kodak. 35mm film was used by all sorts of manufacturers from 1905 to 1913. The war disrupted development on new models but in 1925 the Lecia 1 overtook Kodaks sales and established 35mm film as the go-to choice for high-end compact cameras. In 1936, Japanese brand Canon rose in popularity after soldiers took these new cameras home with them following the Korean War. 1949 saw the release of the first instant-picture camera named the Polaroid Model 95.

Digital photography did not use film or chemicals, instead images were saved directly onto memory cards. They have low operating costs and gradually pushed chemical cameras out of the limelight. The very first can be linked back to 1969 but did not reach markets in any capacity until 1989. The low quality, lack of colour and high price caused the device to completely fail commercially. Gradually with technological advancements the digital camera became a more viable option however it wasn’t until 2003 that digital cameras finally outsold film cameras. Since the 90s Kodak and Fujifilm had competed for space and with the global switch to digital, Kodak fell behind and in 2012 filed for bankruptcy. Digital cameras however have only continued to thrive and advance.

For this second photoshoot, I explored both the museum and around the industrial sector which was largely different to the old pier. I took 700+ images this time as I found it more interesting.

I split these into 3 sections: People, industrial and the museum.

In the museum I learned about many of the myths and urban legends such as:

Lé Tchian du Bouôlay. This is a man wolf which resembles a massive black dog with large eyes. He was known to follow pedestrians before a storm and so acted a warning to fishermen.

Contact Sheet and Selection

Edits

1

2

Combining all of my images in total, I decided that these were my best:

I took 260+ images on this first photoshoot of varying angles of the piers and surrounding buildings. Each of the old structures has its own history relating to the islands Marine history.

I started at no 9 Pier Road which has become the jersey museum. the land in front is all reclaimed and stretches all around to the waterfront.

Contact Sheet and Selection

I split these photographs into 2 sections:

Section 1:

Section 2:

These photographs show modern trade and the roles involved. There is lots of machinery and all goods are centralised in warehouses and held in large metal crates. This is largely different to trade from the past where trade occurred much more privately and personally. Modern trade is also much more standardised. Every worker wears hivis and helmets for safety and easy identification.

Timeline

Roman coins were discovered on the island showcasing evidence of a trade network which would have required over-sea travel. This is the earliest evidence of traveling by boat. During the Middle ages, Christianity arrived on the island showing more regular travel in the 9th century and Piracy (mainly by Vikings) also took place.

From the 15th-18th century there was a general increase in trade due to technical advancements in ships and navigation. Jersey took advantage and cod-merchants traded between British colonies (West Indies, America and back to Europe.), and also built large trade ships.

Modern ships became steam powered and many Jersey families moved around the globe. St. Hellier became the main port of the island and gradually expanded its piers. As steel ships took over, Jersey saw a decline in tonnage and fleet size.

After WW1 tourism on the island massively increased but was halted by the occupation in WW2. where 200+ islanders escaped via boat. Once the war finished, fishing had an annual value of around £10m in 1995. Private boating became more popular and fast ferries were established as a commercial mode of transport. In the 80s, tourism reached its peak as rail tickets included these ferries providing a cheap, close holiday island for mainlanders.

Jersey within context of the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade

What was the involvement of Jersey mariners in the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade?

Jersey has many links to the Transatlantic carrying trade and Canadian cod-fisheries. Much of the islands and individual families wealth was generated through the establishment of merchant businesses.

Many people and families can be directly linked through both indirect and direct contact. A few examples are St. Johns Josué Mauger who set up as a merchant in Halifax of Nova Scotia. The Company of Royal Adventurers was founded in part by Sir George Carteret which held a monopoly over trades to Africa mostly for gold and people but also ivory, wax and wood. His son James Carteret owned a plantation in Carolina and commanded the Speedwell slave ship. Hope was a ship built in jersey. Over the ships lifetime it picked up 230 and disembarked 199 enslaved people. The salted cod was seemingly used for 2 purposes. The high quality cod was sold for a profit by the merchants and the low quality cod was used to feed enslaved people.

Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?

St. Aubins was Jerseys main port. Jersey was involved in the triangular trade mainly with Canada.

What type of goods did Jersey merchants exchange for cod-fish?

The triangular trade was the process of moving trade goods between Africa, the Caribbean and the United Kingdom. This mainly involved salted cod to feed enslaved people and mahogany, cotton and sugar harvested by enslaved people but occasionally also tobacco, wax and ivory which would be sold back in Europe for money.

To what extend, has the island of Jersey benefitted from its constitutional relationship with Britain and the legacies of colonialism based on a slave plantation economy during the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)?

The beginnings of Jerseys finance industry, which is the islands main source of employment and income, was rooted in plantations and enslavement. The wealth generated from the use of enslaved people is what the foundations are built on.

Josué Mauger’s great nephew inherited his wealth and built No 9 Pier Road. This building has since become the Jersey Museum and shows deep ties to our history and great generational wealth built off the back of slavery which has continued to benefit the island since, still showing Mahogany was used in large throughout the building. In 1968 the building was stated as being ‘the finest possible example of a prosperous merchant’s town house’ while simultaneously being the ‘most pretentious family mansions in St Helier’.

The latter part of the 18th century and early 19th century also marks one of the richest periods in Jersey where many local families made substantial fortunes through cod fishing on
the Newfoundland banks. Due to the large amount of incoming cash, Jersey established its first banks. These banks differed slightly to English ones and with unique benefits allowed the Finance Industry to thrive.