1. Research a photo-book and describe the story it is communicating  with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.

‘The Americans’ – Robert Frank, Published 1958.

‘The Americans’ by Robert Frank captures his Journey across 48 states of America, photographing the natural sights around the country. Through the candid approach it communicates the “everything-ness and American-ness of these pictures” ( To quote the book). Reminiscent to Henri Cartier-Breton’s ‘Europeans’, it captures street photography of the everyday lives and experiences of those of at the time. Making use of a variety of shot types, the core 3 that are present consist of close-up, mid-shots and long-shots. Like its subjects, Franks’ images consist of many types of light. Natural and unnatural, are used heavily to bring out detail and character to his images, such as with dark shadows of the day forming a stark contrast, or the warm glow of lights bringing attention to his surroundings and subjects of the photograph.

2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)

Robert Frank, 1924 – 2019.

“I was very free with the camera. I didn’t think of what would be the correct thing to do; I did what I felt good doing.” – Robert Frank

Robert Franks ‘The Americans’ explores the faces of many personalities across the United States. Travelling from state to state, the written intro from Jack Kerouac narrates his journey, bringing to life the images we later see. With many takes on the reasoning behind his journey of faces, the most popular intention behind Franks work was that he wished to photograph the America, far away from the idealised view of the American dream and instead capture the quiet America, those not given a voice or those that didn’t live in line with the vision of the ‘American way of Life’. In the theory of Frederik Trovatten, Frank within his work wanted to: Embrace imperfection, prioritise emotion over aesthetics, see a story in every frame, develop his own vision and be an observer to the world, not a performer.

In the words of the Museum of Modern Art “In a country that was not his own, Frank assumed the unique position of an outsider and voyeur who unobtrusively captured the tensions of the geographic, economic, racial, and religious diversity of the US.” “Frank captured the nation as a messy corpus, never privileging city or country, black or white, Jew or Christian, rich or poor.”.

Franks achievement through his work earned him a notable reputation in the world of photography, such as within John Szarkowski’s theory of ‘Mirrors’ and ‘Windows’. To quote Szarkowski, Robert Frank’s work “characterises opposite modes of the new photography, with its divergence between those who believe that art is a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, and those who see it as a window, through which one may better know the world.”.

Frank also notably gained awards such as the Guggenheim fellowship in 1955, the 1996 Hassebald foundation international award in photography, the 2002 Edward MacDowell medal and a doctorate in fine arts in 2015 from Nova Scotia college of Art and design University.

Sources:

Robert Frank: The Americans

https://trovatten.com/robert-frank

https://www.moma.org/artists/1973

3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design of the book and apply theory above when considering:

• Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper. – Smells like a new book, with waxy coated paper for the images.
• Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both. – Black and white text are used, on the same type of paper across the entire book.
• Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages. – The Book is small, with images in around an A5 format, the images are mainly landscape and positioned on the right hand side of the book, with the left, kept as an open space for the photograph title.
• Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello – The book is a hard cover, featuring a swiss binding and dust jacket.
• Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping. – The cover is a card like paper that features a printed image of one of his photographs on.
• Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing. The title, which is literal in its meaning combines with the printed image to intrigue the spectator to the contents of the book, and how the people are presented.
• Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told? – The story/subject matter is that of the American people, not any specific demographic but the mass diversity of races, ethnicity’s, religions, etc.
• Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative. – The repeating motif of a star spangled banner is featured commonly through the book, images are also not fixed within one location but jump from different locations ands environment’s displaying a vibrant change in scenery.
• Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts. – Images are featured on one page each, with white space to the left for the titles.
• Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process. Images juxtapose themselves throughout the book, clashing from rural to urban, night to day, not focusing on image style for too long.
• Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others.  Use of captions (if any.) – Images are linked through their study of the American people, this varies in the people you see and where you see them throughout the book, This is emphasised from the introduction by Jack Kerouac which narrates Franks adventure across the country to capture such.

UNDERSTANDING PHOTOBOOKS:

NARRATIVE, EDITING, SEQUENCING, DESIGN, FORM, FUNCTION.  

What needs to be done:

Literary sources: Go to this blog post here: Theory: Literary Sources and copy relevant key texts relating to the subject of your essay and list in alphabetical order in your bibliography. In addition, find your own key texts in relation to artists selected for in-depth analysis in your essay and list these too. These texts could be interviews with the artist, or reviews/ critique’s written by others. See useful online sites/ sources here .

• Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
• Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
• It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
• Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages, page number to be used for in-text referencing etc.

Essay Question

• Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
• Below is a list of possible essay questions that may help you to formulate your own.

possible-essay-questions-to-investigate

Some examples of Personal Study essays from previous students:

Essay Plan
Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure

Essay Draft:

Essay question:

• How can photography represent the realities or truth of war?

Opening quote:

“Photography cannot change the world, but it can show the world, especially when it changes.” – Marc Riboud

Introduction (250-500 words): 

What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?

+ Mr Toft feedback

Draft Introduction (250-500 words). Think about an opening that will draw your reader in e.g. you can re-formulate the essay question. You should include in your introduction an outline of your intention of your study, e.g. what area of photography, or subject-matter are you exploring? Which artists/ photographers are you going to investigate/ analyse/ interpret? Why does this subject/ work interest you? What are you trying to prove/challenge, argument/ counter-argument? What historical or theoretical context is the work situated within? Include at least 1 or 2 quotes for or against. What links are there with your previous studies, if any? How has this subject and chosen artists/ photographers inspired your own images/ responses? How will your work develop? What camera skills, photographic techniques or processes have you experimented with, or are you going to experiment with?

• Paul M. Smith + Michiel Peters.

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Within my study I will explore the lives of German soldiers stationed at La Corbiere. Using a combination of both tableaux and documentary approaches to photography, I will depict their lives as they lived them in their fortifications. For my inspiration, the artists I have chosen are Paul M. Smith, a UK artist behind the series ‘Artist Rifles’ (1995) and Michiel Peters, a Belgian photographer who, through re-enacting archive images, creatively visualises and re-tells the lives of soldiers of the Second World War. Both artists share the theme of war, however through their depictions, varies greatly in the meanings and purpose behind them. as stated by Sontag in ‘Platos cave’ “Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire.”, I find this applicable to both of my artists within their respective genres and interpretations of the theme of ‘war’. In my eyes, Smith’s work falls into the artisanal category, using himself as the subject behind photoshopped scenarios, which can be analysed to be a reflection of his own experiences involving the military. Peters’ work on the other hand, focuses more-so on the documentary category of photography, creating a tableaux to re-tell events surrounding areas of historical significance in Belgium and France.

Through both of these interpretations of war, I find it interesting to see how both explore the subject, in either a personal or educational manner. For my project I would like to recreate some original images of the Germans soldiers’ stories I’m visualising. To do this, I will edit them to appear in a similar manner to the quality and feel of the vintage film aesthetic. In addition to this, I would also like to create that de-saturated grittiness of Peters photographs, as I feel it creates a sense of realistic immersion. From correspondence with Peters himself, he told me “My inspiration comes more from movies and TV than other photographers, such as with Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, the Longest Day, and some others.”. To merge these two aesthetics – photography and cinema – I will include filler images that fade like a gradient between them.

With the subject of war, being associated to the thoughts of death and violence, I find these artists in their respective ways, present the side of humanity which can be found in those who were involved; their stories and experiences. Applying similar photographic methods and techniques, I wish to combine the two, to present a personal interpretation and to educate people on the lives of some of those stationed within Jersey during the Second World War. With scars of the war still residing through concrete emplacements along our Islands coast, this also creates the personal factor of heritage and history, which I wish to remind and educate viewers about a pinnacle point in our local history. Through these artists, I find that they will inspire me to create an informative and unique take on documenting history that reflects both on their creative qualities of editing. Using photoshop skills I have picked up during my studies, I feel I have a good basis on how I can go about creating my project.

Pg 1 (500 words):

 Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. 

Discuss differences in approach to image-making, truth, realism and storytelling between documentary and tableaux photography.
Example: Joe Rosenthal; Raising the flag of Iwo Jima. –

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During the period of the occupation, many soldiers on the island were found cut off from mainland Europe, with limited ways to communicate to their families. Soldiers like Engelbert Hoppe found it a hard time to be away for so long. Like the islanders, many soldiers also felt imprisoned. For this reason, I wish to capture these stories within my photographs. Through my study into photographic art movements and approaches to image-making, I find that tableaux is the most applicable to my work. The origin of tableaux in photography as an aesthetic style is rooted in pictorialism, which emerged in the late 19th century and was the first attempt to consider photography and artistic expression. Performed in plays, Tableaux vivant was a early form of its place within art. Performed in theatres, actors would form visualisations of the past such as live recreations of historic paintings through costumes. In its simplest form, Tableaux can be used to convey a pictorial narrative through staged images.

With my approach to interpreting the German soldiers being through a personal expression of my passion for history, I find that through tableaux, I wish to create a representation of the lives of the often generalised enemy. With the German people forced to serve by their fascist government, the unlucky young population that did not conform was what made up some of the men from 2nd Company of MG Battalion 16.

In Susan Sontag’s ‘Plato’s Cave’ she speaks of the use of photography in war, with its initial use to document progression of battles and victories it eventually became a source of capturing the visual horrors and atrocities of war. Sontag examples this through the controversial Vietnam War. Unlike prior conflicts, such as the Second World War when the United States was fighting for a “just cause of the free world”, the conflict in Vietnam was a proxy-war of political ideologies, ‘No one brought back photographs of daily life in Pyongyang, to show that the enemy had a human face’ (Sontag 1977: pg 18). Artists that did so include the likes of Nick Ut with famous image ‘The Napalm Girl’ and Eddie Adams who captured the horror committed by man with his image ‘Death captured on camera’.

‘The Napalm Girl’, Nick Ut, 1972.

‘Death captured on camera’, Eddie Adams, 1968.

These images are compelling for the time they where made as they showed the reality of ‘the enemy’, innocent people where caught up in this war of politics and where facing the brunt of it which I find is telling in these images. With all this in mind I find that despite the fixed mindset of ‘good vs evil’ people naturally associate to war, there is a deeper personal factor which often goes unrecognised of the people caught between, forced into these situations against their will. This is why I feel as Tableaux is applicable, focusing on the subject matter of the personal lives, I wish to construct a narrative that people can follow to visually understand that these soldiers had their own lives too, not just the face of a hateful and oppressive regime. to quote Susan Sontag ‘To photograph is to participate in another persons mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing, all photographs testify to times relentless melt.’ (Sontag 1977: pg 15).

Pg 2 (500 words):

 Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.

Content: you could look at the following...Introduce your first photographer. Select key images, ideas or concepts and analyse in-depth using specific model of analysis (describe, interpret and evaluate) – refer to your hypothesis. Contextualise…what was going on in the world at the time; artistically, politically, socially, culturally. Other influences…artists, teachers, mentors etc. Personal situations or circumstances…describe key events in the artist’s life that may have influenced the work. Include examples of your own photographs, experiments or early responses and analyse, relate and link to the above. Set the scene for next paragraph.

Include relevant examples, illustrations, details, quotations, and references showing evidence of reading, knowledge and understanding of history, theory and context!

• Paul M Smith.

— – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – — – – – – – – – – – — – – – – – – – –

To depict the lives of the German Soldiers and answer the question ‘how can photography represent the realities or truth of war’ I found that Paul M Smiths work, aided me through his images. Displaying his own personal interpretation, his images contain cloned versions of himself dressed as soldiers. Placed in scenarios, remnant of work such as Eddie Adams. Here I found inspiration into how he utilised photography to visualise the personal effects but also ubiquitous effects of wars reality.

‘Artist Rifles’, Paul M Smith, 1997. + ‘Death captured on camera’, Eddie Adams, 1968.

Through these depictions, this inspired me within my own work to attempt to do something similar. Where as Smith retold his own military experiences through an interpretative tableaux, my work takes from the personal memoirs written by soldiers of MG Battalion 16, 2nd Company. I aimed to interpret what would they would get up to during their stationing to Corbiere.

Paul M smiths influence:

‘Artist Rifles’, 1997, Paul M Smith.

My example.

Pg 3 (500 words): 

Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.

• Michiel Peters. – He uses Robert Capa’s Quote, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” to tell me his thought process when recreating WW2 photos.

Conclusion (250-500 words):

Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced

Bibliography: List all relevant sources used:

• A short PPT on Documentary Photography

• Sontag, S. (1977) ‘In Plato’s cave’ in On Photography. London: Penguin Books.

• A short PPT on Tableaux Photography
• Bate, D. (2016) ‘Pictorual Turn’ in Art Photography. London: Tate Galleries.
• Bright, S. (2005). ‘Narrative’ in Art Photography Now. New York: Aperture.
• Cotton, C. (2009). ‘Once Upon a Time’ in The Photograph as Contemporary Art. London: Thames & Hudson.

Essay writing: Here is a link to another blog post which will provide you with guideline about how to structure each paragraph in your essay.

These are the edits of my first and second photoshoot:

Snapseed edits –

Using the app Snapseed on my phone, I was able to use their filters to create both a realistic depiction and more time-period based aesthetic of some of my images.

Lightroom & Photoshop –

Gun Crew:

Before:

Using the Image without me as a base Image the aim was to recreate the original photograph by layering the different positions of myself to replicate the look of the gun crew. By syncing the images to the same editing settings I aimed to create the old Yellowish texture and hue photographs from the past contain.

With this image as my reference, I tried to recreate it to the best I could.

Editing:

Using the following settings I was able to create the desired aesthetic that makes use of its low tones to contrast brightly against the limited but bright light.

Outcome:

Now edited I was able to merge these images to replicate the original image using photoshops object selection tool to layer the images of myself into one.

After:

Overall I am happy with the outcome of this Image. With the overall composition creating an interesting story, I find my inspiration from both the the original reference Image and the artist inspiration from Paul M Smith are faithfully recreated in my own piece of work.

Ammo Inspection:

Before:

Like the previous Image, the aim for this image was to create a scenario that would occur within the life of the fortress. With the Bunker being remade to look how it did 80 years ago, this helped create the immersive aesthetic which I believe added to to its overall mise-en-scene through the additional use of props and costumes.

Editing:

Using the following settings I was able to create an contrasted tone of stone grey’s and almost a sand-like white, to me this was creative in its own appearance, whilst still paying homage to the older appearance of photographs of that time.

Outcome:

From this I was then able to repeat the process of using photoshops object selection tool to create ‘clonified’ versions of myself.

After:

I Like this outcome as it recreates a plausible scenario which would occur within the bunker, with difference In headwear and accessories I feel that this image helps to separate the 2 ‘Me’s’ and creates an detailed level of immersion.

Crew Room:

Before:

With the more serious areas of the bunker being covered I thought I’d try to cover the more relaxed types of images you’d see in a bunker such as communal living and sharing the limited utilities offered.

Editing:

Using these settings I tried to create an Image with some colour, with the warmth of the photographs already with its brown and orange wood panelling as a backdrop, this acted as a stepping stone to achieve this, through the following edit settings

Outcome:

After:

With this intended candid style, I feel it creates an interesting atmosphere and aesthetic to the image, with the me on the right having a partially obscured face, like some of the other images I have made, to me, it creates a level of realism to the peculiar concept of Paul M. Smiths work I have chosen to base my images off.

Spent cases room:

Before:

With these Images here I wanted to try and continue this intended candid style, with some minor influence from Henri Cartier Bretton with use of motion blur. With the centre image, this was inspired by this photograph in particular.

‘Behind the St. Lazare’, 1932 – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Editing:

Using the settings shown I created the basis of tone, shadow, high lights and etc. This was to create that ‘Stoney’ colour like within Cartier-Bressons photograph.

Outcome:

Now edited I could now merge them into an image to create another ‘scenario’ photo.

After:

With the use of different props, poses and uniform diversity I feel as if this shows a creative mise-en-scene into the idea of my project and how I aim to show the lives of Jerseys occupiers in World War 2.

Command Phone:

Before:

Straying away from some of the multi-crew photographs I’d thought I would try some individual shots as sort of filler photographs between the main edits.

Editing:

Using both a gradient filter an exposure brush, I touched up on some details I thought were lacking towards the left side of the photograph.

After:

With a section of my influence based on the work of Michiel Peters, I aimed to recreate his images that feature a low-saturation to create a sense of drama and grittiness.

Field training:

Before:

With this image being a large one to recreate, I tried my best to copy out the poses and appearances of the individuals of each man within the original photograph of the training exercise.

Editing:

Using a blank image of my location as a basis, I edited it to my liking and then applied these settings to the set of images I wanted to implement into into it.

From this, I then used photoshop to merge them into one by cutting out myself into layers and piecing them together.

Adjusting them slightly to fill the gaps I then flattened the image to make it whole.

After:

As a result, this is what turned out:

Overall, I am very happy with this image, as editing the multiple ‘Me’s’ proved to be quite difficult. There is still some minor faults such as repetitiveness with the headdress and of course myself however this came at the expense of uniform accessories such as other hats or caps they would have worn. Cropping of the feet to was also hard, as wind direction and changes made from moving about made the lower parts seem less in quality compared to the upper, however if decide to crop by the calves this can be avoided.

Combat Exercise:

Before:

With these Images, I aimed to show my inspiration from Paul M. Smith and his series ‘Artist Rifles’. With his photograph of multiple clones of himself making an assault charge, I found that replicating this would be perfect within the types of battle trainings the Germans had on the island.

Editing:

Editing these images, like the ones previously, I applied them to my selected photographs.

Outcome:

After:

Placing the various me’s, I find it has resembled the photographs of Paul M Smith and his similar creative choices regarding his series ‘Artist Rifles’ very well.

‘Artist Rifles’, 1997 – Paul M. Smith.

Interlude Photographs:

With the edits making up a lot of the book, I will add some filler ‘interlude photographs between the scenario images I made. These images don’t include to much of the clone process.

Before:

Editing:

Using these settings, I tried to replicate the colour and tone of the ammunition room photograph.

After:

Overall I am happy with the outcome of this photograph as I find that it acts a good example of the more ‘regular’ experiences they got up to which, now we can still relate to such as shaving.

Photoshoot 1 –

Green –

(Purple stands for edited photographs).

These photos I found where clearly taken and where applicable to be able to edited for my project. These images rate around 4 or 5 out of 5.

Yellow –

These photos are good but not what I want or did fully come out as expected. These Images score for about a 3/5.

Red –

These Images were either accidental, poorly taken, test shots or other. They score around a 1 or 2 out of 5.

Brief –

For my Images, I plan on photographing at the K2 bunker at Corbiere. Here I will create my images inspired by the lives of the German soldiers in the conflict and retell them in the style of photographers, August Sander and Paul M. Smith. Basing my work on Michiel Peters’ World War 2 visualisations, my inspiration is to retell a story within my images, similar to how peters’ does in his work.

‘2nd Armoured in Belgium’ – 2024, Michiel Peters.

Where my inspiration from Paul M. Smith comes in, will be through the use of myself as a subject within multiple characters in a scene, such as Smith does in his series, ‘Artist Rifles’. With the bunker I’m photographing in being manned by multiple crew members, finding enough actors and uniforms proves to be a struggle, by photographing myself this will make the shoot more achievable to the look I want.

‘Artist Rifles’ – 1997, Paul M. Smith

Images to recreate –

MG Battalion 16, 2nd Company – Training in the vicinity of La Moye.

Engelbert Hoppe – The 19-year old Commander of the M19 Corbiere complex.

Horst Herrmann – The young Berliner, who was stationed in the K2 bunker.

10.5cm Canon – Prior to its construction, the 10.5 was outdoors under a camouflaged netting.

Using existing photos of the men stationed in the Bunker, my photographs will aim to recreate them closely with similar uniforms and positioning. With photos of particular locations that I can access, I am able to recreate these well, for some outdoor and others that are similar to other locations, I can replicate these with ease too.

Photoshoot 1 –

In this first shoot I will aim to create the interior depictions of life under concrete. I will also try to mimic the photograph of the 10.5cm canon in the style of Paul M. Smith where I portray each operating role of the canon crew.

Types of scenarios will include:

• Sentry duty
• Weapon maintenance
• shaving
• Polishing boots
• reading
• cooking
• Weapon drills on the canon
• Ammunition inspection

Photoshoot 2 –

In the second shoot, I will aim to create the exterior depictions of their outdoor life’s. Here I will try to mimic Michiel Peters photographs in the open environment works, of realistic settings to where the Germans would’ve gone and what they would do outside of their fortresses. One photo I want to recreate is the photo of them on field training in the area of La Moye.

Types of scenarios will include:

• site-seeing
• Walks
• Combat training – Real photo I can base off.
• drill practice – real photo I can base off.
• Portraits – real photos – Engelbert and Horst – inspired by true photos and August Sanders work.
• outdoor sentry duty

Statement of intent –

• What you want to explore?
• Why it matters to you?
• How you wish to develop your project?
• When and where you intend to begin your study?

Personal:

Within my work, I aim to explore history through my photography. Due to my interest In the subject I feel as if I can create personal and expressive representations of the past or follow in the documentative medium to capture how our surrounding environment has changed to now. History through photography, to me, Observes an insight into a greater knowledge of the past, and the different ways to explore it, by visually getting a picture I feel as it lasts more in a persons mind to visualise what has come before us, unlike historical texts do. From my own personal experiences, I find that to further development my historical interests I aim to seek a visual understanding of the past, whether it be a historical site or what remains from that period. To have that opportunity to express that through a creative photographic process, I want to educate through my work their historical impact and bring awareness to their significance.

I wish to develop my project through exploring visualisations of the past, such as like documentative photography. In my work however, I will stage these images to replicate this effect, to create an immersive atmosphere within my photographs to make the past lives of people more relatable to the modern day. By photographing at historical sites, I feel this better replicates their relatability to our lives today. Using LED lighting and a tripod, I will aim to photograph myself recreating these photos to further demonstrate my interests in the historical subject. Looking into local History, I aim to begin my study by looking at key historical events within the island such as the occupation. With the occupation being a large part about the Islands history I will aim to try and replicate the lives of Jerseys occupiers at their concrete constructions littered around the coast.

With the topic, documentative photography, as my main point of inspiration, I want to create a visually informative project in the form of 1-3 mini books in a box set, or one entire book. The issue I’ll explore is the unexplored sides of war such as the life’s of the individuals forced to fight and serve, In the case of the occupation, many of these types of individuals where present.

Project:

Due to my strong interest into the Second World War, I feel as if my knowledge on the subject will make an interesting documentative personal study. Creating a recreated depiction of the men stationed at Corbiere, I will base my images through the personal accounts some of these soldiers gave from CIOS annual reviews. Having personal access to the Bunkers they where physically in, written accounts from the men themselves and uniforms they would have worn, I feel this is a good stepping stone into how this project can be creatively and effectively made. I would like to do this to explore our islands history and share it with others who either aren’t aware or want to know more about our islands history. By covering the Occupiers side, I aim to tell an often untold story about their emotions and lives amongst the trapped islanders.

Visiting Art centres around St Helier, we got a good insight into some artists and their creative pieces.

Jersey Arts Centre –

Marc Medland’s ‘10 projects’ exhibition:

1. Leonard and Doreen’s Trip into Trouble
2. The Good Neighbour Plan
3. No More Gas
4. K.O.T
5. Super Birds
6. Seven Deadly Sins
7. Baptistery/Launderette
8. Bringing the Outside In
9. Pop Ups
10. Rooftop Crawlers

‘The invented parallel worlds are set in extreme situations and are represented using short film, animation, collage, architectural drawing and physical models.’ – Jersey Arts. Visiting this exhibition, the work on display was creatively eccentric in its appearance, with a retro yet modern aesthetic, the use of graphic design, story telling through ai generated imagery and unique individual production in all the projects, I Enjoyed his work and found it quite impressive.

CCA Galleries –

Visiting the CCA Galleries next, we looked around the current exhibition created by photographer, Glen Perotte, who captured his 15 day summit up mount Kenya’s botanical beauty. As the Gallery states “this new series of photographs Perotte explores the flora of Mount Kenya, Africa’s second highest mountain after Kilimanjaro and a uniquely special place. Mount Kenya is god’s mountain, a locus for the spiritual life of many of the ethnic tribes in the area who believe god came down from the sky to live on its peak amongst the clouds. The focus for Perotte is the astonishing plant life that manages to take root in this volcanic and harsh landscape of thin air and rocky terrain, sometimes by banding together and at other times finding a small niche to settle in alone. Strange, yet wonderfully captivating, these botanical wonders exhibit adaptations honed over millennia to survive the harsh mountain environment.

Glen Perotte is an international photographer who has worked in New York, London and is now based in Jersey. Perotte has shown at the Barbican London, The Association of Photographers Gallery and the Royal Photographic Society, Bristol. Glen returns to CCA Galleries International for his third solo exhibition with an exciting body of new work.”

Amongst the other parts of the gallery, we looked at some international work from other featured artists on display.

ArtHouse Jersey at Court House –

Dancing Together: A ballad – by Kaarina Kaikkonen is the current exhibition at court house. Featuring a vast collection of donated clothes, it tells a moving story of the story’s behind the pieces of clothing, donated by our islands local people.

As ArtHouse Jersey states:

”Dancing Together: A Ballad is an indoor reimagining of Kaarina Kaikkonen’s large-scale public sculpture, Dancing Together, which was created in the outside in the public realm in St Helier in the summer of 2024. It incorporated over 700 shirts donated by people in Jersey during the summer and many of those who donated a short also shared a meaningful memory or story connected to the shirt.

For this overall project Kaarina Kaikkonen has created two distinct works that bring together the different stories of people and their shirts – ordinary, sad, courageous, joyful, humorous – that reflect the people of Jersey. In the more intimate space of ArtHouse Jersey at Capital House, visitors are invited to get up close to these very personal sentiments, each garment holding a world of its own memory, offering Islanders the chance to truly connect with the many moving human stories that held the original Charing Cross public artwork together. Dancing Together and Dancing Together: A Ballad, both created especially for Jersey, are the latest works in a series of shirt installations that Kaarina Kaikkonen has created inside galleries, museums and outdoor settings across the world over the past thirty years, from Shanghai to Madrid, Santiago, Chile to Rome and across Finland and Scandinavia. Each work responds to the particular architectures, histories and natural elements of its location, recycling materials to create an artwork that speaks to a sense of a collective ‘body’, of time suspended and a poetic reflection of memory, loss and our shared experience as humans and the different environments in which we live. Discussing her work, artist Kaarina Kaikkonen has said, ‘I want to use materials that have had a previous life. Then I change it and give it a new life, a new form of art. To make beauty from the ordinary.’ This reinvention of Dancing Together into a new life, also featuring a specially created score by acclaimed Finnish composer Päivi Takala, opens the question of what is possible through reimagining, reusing – and how from otherwise forgotten or discarded materials, can come an extraordinary, moving, gallery experience.”

“The sound of Colour” Town church –

On our final art piece visit, we went across the road to Town Church to see ArtHouse Jerseys second exhibition, ‘The sound of Colour – arrivals’. Visually retelling the history of Jersey through Sound and beautiful visuals, this was a very immersive art piece I found very well made and inspirational. From ArtHouse Jersey “ArtHouse Jersey’s The Sound of Colour: Arrivals, is a new projection mapping project to be presented at St Helier Town Church from Friday 8 to Saturday 23 November. Featuring visuals by international artist Akhila Krishnan and a soundscape by the Jersey electroacoustic composer Sarah Keirle-Dos Santos the piece is co-authored and produced by Natasha Dettman for ArtHouse Jersey. It follows the success of the first edition of The Sound of Colour: Origins (2021) which also completely transformed the iconic venue of St Helier Town Church with projection and soundscapes.

Arrivals explores the emergence of language in Jersey; from the distant whisperings of the Magdalenian people of the late Stone Age, the Iron Age Celts of Gaul, the Romans, the Franks, the Normans, to the appearance of our native language Jèrriais. Bringing light into the darkening month of November, Arrivals considers how our language and culture has been woven into existence and shaped over thousands of years of settlement of this Island by different peoples and cultures. We finally land in present day Jersey, where the sounds of modern English, French, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Swahili, Filipino and many more languages can be heard. The immersive soundscape created by Sarah Keirle-Dos Santos features the voices of many Islanders speaking some of the languages which would at various times have been spoken widely and some which may have made a brief appearance in Jersey.”

For my personal Study I have looked at two photographers, Micheil Peters and August Sander. Michiel Peters is distinctive for his aesthetic and expertly crafted composition of his visualisations of the Second World War. With Images depicting the Soldiers of the past, his work is unique for there elaborate mise-en-scene of locations converted to the past. Taken with original vehicles, such as: Tanks, boats, trucks, Jeeps, aircraft, etc he makes good use of these to tell the true story of what occurred within Europe. August Sander, known for his extensive portfolio of the German peoples portrait over half a century, has been implemented as a highly influential figure within the world of photography. Through a single image he is able to convey so much about his subject due to their appearances and surroundings, for this reason, Sander’s work is recognised as a perfect example of the ‘environmental portrait’.

Michiel Peters –

August Sander –

Further sources –

Some other artist influences include Henri Cartier-Bresson, known widely for his candid street shots, captures the decisive points in time when pictures are taken, These to me show the candid reality of people which I can try to replicate in my work. From a historical context, I have looked into the work of Robert Capa, who is arguably the most recognisable war photographer for such works as the ‘Falling soldier’ taken during Spanish civil war of the 1930s and mainly his images of Omaha Beach, taken in the early hours of the invasion of Normandy, June 6th, 1944. D-Day. These shots capture the frontline horrors many back home had not seen yet and gave an accurate representation of the brutal reality many had to deal with during the Second World War. This practice of close combat photography would not take of massively until much later in the 20th century such as with the Vietnam War. Further more, I have collected my own sources of pictures of Jersey’s occupation which I aim to implement alongside by own images. For the staged candid effect I may want to experiment with I have also looked into the work of Paul M Smith. From real experiences within the Army, Smith recreated staged images of army training/combat photos where every soldier was himself. From this I can explore the more personal aspects of the occupation and how much I can represent my passion for the subject.

‘Liberation of Paris’, August 1944 – Henri Cartier-Bresson.

‘Omaha Beach’, June 6th 1944, Robert Capa.

‘Artist Rifle’, 1997, Paul Smith.

Further into Paul Smiths Artist Rifle series can be seen here to see how he uses clones of himself to create some interesting story’s within his photographs.

Link – https://www.saatchigallery.com/artist/paul_smith

Personal Response from artist inspiration, Michiel Peters:

Interested in his work, I reached to the photographer to ask him 3 questions on his work relating to some ideas behind my project:

What inspired your to recreate these visualised images of the Second World War?

“I’ve always had a passion for photography and military history. As I live in Belgium I always went to the Ardennes to attend the battle of the bulge commemorations in December every year since I was a little boy. But at the same time I never had the feeling that the pictures I saw really brought the history to life in such a way that the horror of the war in all its aspects was represented so that people would know the horror these soldiers had endured. I wanted to bring more character In my pictures to relate to real soldiers during World War 2.”

Have you taken influence from any other photographers?

“I have not really been inspired by other photographers, when I started photographing re-enactment, this form of photography was only in its early days VS now where it has gotten a real boost in recent years. I see myself more of a pioneer by telling a story with my pictures, instead taking just a few shots here and there. I never take just 1 re-enactment photo, I always work based on a project which contains more pics to tell a story. I try to be more cinematic in my pictures, hence my inspiration comes more from movies and TV than other photographers, such as with Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, the Longest Day, and some others.

“These photoshoots are most of the time in private shoots not open to the public, I can’t be limited by a public fence where I need to stand behind, for me, the only correct way to capture the re-enactors is when you are next to them in the mud, snow, rain, foxholes, tanks, etc. This is not possible from 100m, you need to be embedded with them or otherwise I cant get the character I want in my pictures I want. The only photographer I relate to in WW2 is Robert Capa with his famous quote… ‘If your pictures are not good enough, you are not close enough!'”.

Does retelling these soldiers lives make you feel more connected to them?

“I work with dedicated re-enactors, at the original historical accurate WW2 locations In Belgium, Normandy, etc. I aim to recreate these scenes as accurately as possible in their environment, using only authentic equipment. The only way I can pay tribute to our fallen heroes the best I can is to show them in this way to express my photographic mind as much as possible.”

Ideas –

M19 Bunker, Corbiere – The Bunker some of these men where in, and is where the soldier, Engelbert Hoppe was in command of at the age of 19.

Circa 1980s – Engelbert Hoppe, re-visiting the old bunker he was in command of from 1943 – 1945, Corbiere.

Project ideas –

• Idea centred around war: more specifically Jersey and its occupation, with the lives of German soldiers within MG battalion 16, 2nd Company, E.g. Horst Herrmann and Engelbert Hoppe.

• Documentative style photography: Candid, natural, In the moment.
• Past, present future: Current conflict, based on culture, immigration, economics, ideologies, prejudices.
• Threat of isolation, stationed far away from Germany, family, what was the physiological impact. With no contact mainland Europe after D-Day what would their concerns, or hopes be? Liberation or fighting to the death?

Inspiration –

Imageworx:

This social media page recreates iconic and some lesser iconic events from the second world war, with modern editing, these images are given a dramatized aesthetic which use a vivid colour pallet to retell these moving stories. With photos taken often in natural lighting it creates that immersive feeling as if they are coloured from originals. As their photograph Marcel Bahnen states, they “Visualise” the Second World War, this to me creates an accurate and genuine insight to these people from past, which I feel when I look at original photographs.

Another group, Paralightworx, a German historical film company, recreate these sorts of images also:

Using colour grading as well as practical and digital effects, these to me can effectively be used to tell a visually appealing story. Used in their short films, it is applied very well. Paralightworx also make create use of colour schemes based on location which I would like to try and replicate. Basing of the tone of the area, I will try to do the same within my photographs.

Another photographer who explores this sub-genre of historical visualisation is Michiel Peters. With numerous images covering the conflict he specialises in portraying these men and women who fought as accurate as possible, even down to locations they fought at. With his photography’s aesthetic style, I would like to recreate the gritty, low-saturated colour scheme he uses. Using his idea of photographing in the exact locations soldiers where, I will replicate that through doing the same within the bunkers of Corbiere. With many of the bunkers restored to look how they did during the Second World War, this was add to the depictive value I aim to replicate.

Story through photograph inspiration –

Germans of 2nd Company, MG Battalion 16 and their stories:

CIOS Review NO.35

Engelbert Hoppe –

Born on the 18th August 1924, In the town of Eschweiler, six miles from Aachen. Engelbert was raised by family as a roman catholic. At age 11, Engelbert experienced the Nazi regimes take-over, and would be forced into his future career: “I wasn’t a member of the Hitler Youth and I was ‘arrested’ along with some friends for wearing the blue shirt of the catholic boy scouts whilst camping in the Eifel woods. Even here the Gestapo had traced us. We were locked up in a barn for the day and our two leaders were taken to Aachen Gestapo Headquarters for Questioning which lasted for two days. This was all terrifying”. Being well-educated, Engelbert was studying at boarding school, awaiting his call to university, this however was not case as his conscription papers arrived and he was forced to report in Aachen. Assigned to Stamm-Komp./G.E.B. 464 (Regulars company/Grenadier replacement Batallion 464), there barracks where situated in his hometown, marching past his parents house, they had not known he had been drafted.

In May of 1944, He was moved to St Malo to then be shipped to Jersey, here a stroke of luck would occur. Running into the commander of St Malo himself, Oberst Von Aulock, he was ordered to report to a Bunker in St Malo, on presenting his ticket to Jersey he was able to convince him to allow him passage to his ship. This would prove to be lucky as in the later months of that same year St Malo was laid waste to a siege by allied forces.

Serving in Jersey, apart of MG Battalion 16, 2nd Company he was put in charge of the M19 bunker complex. Reaching the Headquarters of MG battalion 16 the Feldwebel at the desk asked him from, replying Eschweiler, near Aachen, the Feldwebel in shock replied he was too, and a frequent guest to Engelbert’s parents café. To Engelbert, although being far from home, he felt somewhat closer with this first impression of the island. When reaching Corbiere he gave his first impressions “walking on, all of a sudden I was fascinated by a wonderful seascape – Corbiere lighthouse. This wonderful sight made me stop for a while and take a deep breathe, smelling and tasting the sea air, I saw the Corbiere tea room and 2 bunkers on my right spoiling the view of the lighthouse”.

living in the bunker with 6 other men he would come spend a lot of time with them, all aged around 40, they all could’ve been his father. Life on the island was static, to pass the time, Engelbert and his comrades played games, fished, sung. One of his Comrades, Gustav, singing, when asking the lyrics he told Engelbert not to bother as this was a political song in support of a left-wing political view, and ideology that he had been punished for in the past and went against the sentiments of the Nazis. When exploring the area, Engelbert became friends with some of the locals, Mr and Mrs Le Brocq, when dining in their tea room, Mrs Le Brocq said to him that she did not see him as an occupier but a new neighbour, like with the men of the bunker, he saw them as his grandparents, feeling again somewhat closer to home.

By June 6th, 1944, the allied invasion had began. with the recapturing of Europe, Jersey was cut off, food imports stopped, hunger began. With allied planes over the island, the men where put on alert 24/7. With the food ration dwindling in the colder months, the local population began to starve. Within the cold concrete bunker, small stoves kept them warm. Food was gathered by ‘the poacher’ Karl heinen, hunting rabbits with his rifle, fishing was done by a West-Prussian, named Joszef Proehma who was skilled at the craft.

Being written a letter from home. Engelbert discovered his home town had been bombed, luckily his parents and sister had survived, His brother who also was in the war had lost his Bf109 over paris and was reassigned to a parachutist unit. With Germany bombed and Jersey not he was saddened at the unfortunate circumstances. With the arrival of the SS Vega in late December, the Le Brocqs had been given red cross parcels from Canada and New Zealand. Visiting them, Engelbert was given a small bundle of items such as chocolate, biscuits and butter. Brought to tears he had no way to thank them, spending time with them they used their secret wireless to listen to the BBC, the news gave him home that the war would end in a few months. Surviving the rest of the war Engelbert became one of many POWs (prisoners of wars) or as Engelbert named it POPs (Prisoners of peace), and was taken to England to then be sent back home.

Engelbert’s Poem:

An Die Nacht –

“Ewige Ruh liegt um mich her,

veträumt hör ich die wasser rauschen.

Ich sitz am weiten weltenmeer

und will den wellen lauschen.

Klar ist die Nacht der funkelnden Sterne,

Der goldne Mond spielt mit der Flut;

Komm, greif mich einsame Ferne,

Der Menschen Welt rings um mich ruht.

Leise erzählen die Wasser von Heimat,

Führen mich zu der Eltern Haus,

Bilder der Kindheit ziehn ans Gestad,

Steigen aus dunkeln tiefen heraus…

Stille Nacht, nun bist du gegangen,

Hab Dank für deine himmlische Macht.

All mein Gedanken hielst du umfangen

Und hast mach Jersey die Heimat Gebracht.”

– Im Juni/Juli 1944.

Translated to English –

To The Night –

“Eternal silence all around me,

Like in a dream I hear the waters rush.

Sitting by the ocean.

I listen to the waves.

Clear is this night of sparking stars,

The Golden moon is playing with the rising tide;

Come get me, distant loneliness,

The world of men around me is at rest.

The water murmurs of my homeland,

Leads me to my parents’ house,

Images of childhood come to shore,

Rising from the darkest depths…

Silent night, now you have gone,

I thank you for your divine power.

You engulfed my thoughts

And brought a piece of home to Jersey.”

In June/ July 1944.

CIOS Review NO.49

Horst Hermann –

Born, 8th March, 1925 In Berlin, Horst lived through a post-war capital, infested with hyper-inflation and political instability. Serving some time working for the state labour service, he built railways. At the age of 19 he was drafted in 1943. Being issued his uniform and an old helmet from the first world war, Horst saw this as a good Insurance policy however as due to its thicker steel it offered more protection. With 9 other Berliners, Horst spent some time fighting on the Eastern front. Due to his young age, he was not fit for fighting in such an active role so what ordered by a higher up that he would be sent to “some god-forsaken island off the French coast”. Travelling across Europe in Goods’ wagons he arrived at St Malo and was shipped off to Jersey in September of 1943. Alongside his fellow Berliners, they where all posted to 2nd Company of MG Battalion 16.

Stationed within various positions he mainly resided in the K2,Jagerstand. A Bunker within strongpoint Corbiere that housed a First World War, French canon. Living amongst ‘Country Bumpkins’ as he called them, him and his friends from Berlin found it difficult to converse due to their accents, these men were seasoned members of MG Battalion 16 as they where from the place in Germany where it was established. Whilst in the K2, Horst almost face court martial twice: With the first instance, Horst was given the chance to fire the gun, how it functioned was through the pulling of a lanyard, when instructed to fire, Horsts nerves got the better of him and it slipped through his fingers. The bunker commander, Feldwebel Werner Hentrich, assumed it was a misfire, to assure the safety of the men he ordered them to evacuate the room, after confessing his mistake he was not well liked and was threatened with a potential court martial. His second run-in with potentially getting a court martial, was due to accidently setting of a line of trip-flares. Putting everyone on alert, more specifically, the naval personal in the MP2 tower nearby who lodged a complaint about the “fireworks display”. On another occasion he kept quiet, whilst aiming the gun, he flinched prematurely at the firing of the gun, instead of hitting a designated rock close to La Rocco Tower it ricocheted and hit one of the southern machicolations of the tower, as smoke rose above it, he kept this a secret until revisiting the island in the island. If the shell had been a high explosive, the damage caused to the tower would be too severe, which they where ordered not destroy due to its historical significance.

Serving as Static Infantry, Horst was also trained as a machine gunner on the MG34. Training in the dunes, his lanky figure helped reduce the weight of the 12kg machine gun. The downside however, came with cleaning it after. Due to its complex German engineering removing sand from the working parts consumed a lot of Horsts free time. 2 pets lived in the bunker, a cat and dog which they adopted as mascots, as the war progressed however food supplies dwindled and the cat was unfortunately eaten, on recalling this story Horst would always have a tear in his eye.

After the war, Horst revisited the Island many times, in the years 1980, 1985, 1991 and 2005, until in March of 2007 the news was sadly given that he had passed away, aged 82.

Observe, Seek, Challenge:

“The human desire to seek and explore the unknown has driven artists to look for fresh Inspiration throughout the centuries, compelling them to find diverse subject matter and experiment with new materials.”

• Historical influences remain at the core of what we create now – Cave paintings such as within the caves of Ajanta and Chauvet, influenced Pablo Picasso, upon visiting cave paintings at Altamira he went on to say ‘In 15,000 years we have invented nothing’. The way we create reactions to art, through an artists “Accuracy of Observation” shows how we find satisfaction in what we have. with famous painters such as Rembrandt, he mirrors reality with his hyper-realistic paintings.

Rembrandt, Self portrait, 1628.

Cave paintings of Ajanta, Illustrated well over 15,000 years ago.

Looking at the contemporary artist, Banksy, he explores the question on the irony and expense of erasing Graffiti, whilst prehistoric examples are preserved. At what point is graffiti considered worthy of protecting? and should art both “professional” like Rembrandts realist artworks and contemporary pieces such as Banksy, be held in the same regard.

Banksy, Cave Painting Removal, May 2008.

• Soviet Avant Grande, propaganda posters influencing modern graphic design. Furthermore, shows how art depicts ideological ideas/movements. This shows how art can seek involvement, and engagement through encouragement for a cause, which in this case is political. This is still used today through various mediums such as promotional graphics for day-to-day necessity’s.

G.Pavlov – CCSP Proletarian Brigade, Lenningrad, 1976.

• Art connects the minds of its creator to its outcome. Jackson Pollock for example uses body movements to create his surrealist paintings. “The Search to unravel the working of the Human psyche and understand the very nature of consciousness has often inspired artists”.

Jackson Pollock, ‘Blue Poles’ , 1952.

Another artist, Laura Splan, collaborated with scientists to create lace sculptures of accurate depictions of microscopic virus’s. This to me, shows their deeper connection with the world we observe, seek and challenge.

Laura Splan, Doilies (SARS, HIV, Influenza, Herpes, Hepadna), 2004.

• Documentative photographers often venture to dangerous locations to capture rare and often unseen images. These dangerous locations often include places such as war zones, where the heat of battle has only now become truly documented through modern advancements such as the camera. Artists such as Robert Capa, are well known for their photographic involvement in major historical events, observing them through a lens.

Robert Capa, D-Day – Omaha Beach, 1944.

• Artists can be experimental with their work, choosing to challenge the conventional ideals of what art can be defined as. Like Banksy, The Artist and Photographer, Ai Weiwei is a strong example of this through his contemporary work, often with a simple action but underlined with deeper meanings.

Ai Weiwei, Study of Perspective, 1999.