St Helier Harbour:

Way before the 17th century, St Helier had no actual and decent harbour, although a map in 1545 says otherwise. It showed two stone piers in the area under Le Mont de la Ville, near where the South Pier is today.

The harbour was recorded to be constructed in the early 19th century where previously ships that came into town had only and small jetty at the site which is now called the English Harbour and the French harbour. The Chamber of Commerce urged the states assembly to build a new harbour however they refused so with the refusal, the Chamber took it into their own hands and paid to upgrade the harbour in 1790.

St Helier Harbour trip:

On Tuesday the 10th of September, we met at the Societe Jersiaise where we had a presentation for nearly 2 hours. In these two hours, we had a speaker talk to us about all the famous jersey photographers especially photographers who photographed the harbour and jersey harbours but specifically St Helier Harbour. The speaker showed us a variety of photos which were all produced by jersey photographers. The speaker also went on to describe how photography spawned in jersey and how jersey became an attraction to those who were in middle class who wanted to take pictures for a more cheaper price. After this we went on a walk around St Helier harbour and took a series of pictures of the harbour, making sure that recaptured different angles and perspectives. After the photography session, we had two speakers meet with us where they spoke about the St Helier harbour in more detail and how it all started.

Mood Board:

1500s:

John Cabot’s voyage of 1497 – Google

Newfoundland was discovered during the 15th century by John Cabot during his voyage in 1497, soon after in 1504 small Normal fishing boats visited the coasts of Newfoundland.

1600s:

During 1509-1547 the Spanish and French withdrew from Newfoundland after Henry VIII commenced trading there. By 1530 Jersey men had visited the coasts of Newfoundland and only 6 years later, in 1536 J Hore, and Londoner, established a colony in Newfoundland. Later on in 1562 the Channel Islands boats arrived on the Grand banks, a portion of the North American continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean, lying southeast of Newfoundland.

During 1583, Newfoundland was taken over by Queen Elizabeth. Under 10 years later Jean Guillaume of Jersey obtained a licence to sail to Newfoundland from the Governor of Jersey. Upon Guillaume’s return he was fined 300 crowns by the Royal Court due to selling his cargo of fish at St Malo rather than Jersey. This is when the fishing industry commenced, as this was when the Governor of Jersey quoted that at the end of the sixteenth century islanders were saved from starvation by the arrival of a cargo of fish from the colony.

1700s:

Jersey’s involvement officially began in the start 17th century when Sir Ralegh obtained a ‘grant of application’ in Newfoundland, seamen from Jersey were then moved to begin a fishery in that area of the colony which Ralegh had been granted. As the Governor he not only motivated trade with Newfoundland but other locations too such as Virginia, New England states and the Caribbean Islands. These seamen battled the ocean to bring back cod fish and oil, skins, furs, sugar, tobacco, and more.

There were three families which are named as the “master traders”, d”Auvergne (St Ouen), Lemprierre (St Helier), Le Breton (Lily Langtry branch).

By 1611 St Brelade and other parishes had fishermen who sailed to Newfoundland, however by 1618, just 6 years later, the Privy Council had to order the Governor not to allow stores from the castles to be sold to the Newfoundland fishers, as the use of these stores was likely to risk the inhabitants in times of emergency. In 1625, on his way to Terre Neuve (Newfoundland), one of the master traders Captain Pierre d’Auvergne was captured by pirates and taken to Salé, where he was sold as a slave along with his shipmates.

1800s:

By the 18th century ships had been registered in Jersey after being built in North America and Newfoundland for the fishing trade. In 1740 a non-native Jerseyman, Captain David (Le Vavasseur dit), was recorded as trading between Newfoundland and Lisbon in his vessel ‘Tito’.

One year later, in 1741, the same vessel was sailed once again from Poole to Newfoundland. In 1744, he was a signatory in a petition to the Government of Newfoundland. His other vessel ‘Sally’ was recorded as sailing annually between Poole and Newfoundland as late as 1766, his fishery was located at Burnin: John Jean, Jersey Ships and Railways. In 1764 the youngest son of Philippe and Anne nee d’Auvergne, Charles Robin aged 21, of Robin Pipon and Co, sailed from Jersey in Seaflower, a 41 ton ship, as their agent. He did this to explore the possibility of establishing a fishery there.

From 1765 onwards the French and Quebec merchants moved away from the Gaspe coast which allowed Jersey firms to move the the more profitable fisheries off the Gaspe coast.

Robin Pipon and co established fishing posts as far north as Baie des Chaleurs, under the auspices of their kinsman, Charles Robin, for later on formed his own company in 1783, named ‘Charles Robin and co’. During 1790-1792 Charles Robin with eight vessels , including the largest one St Peter weighing 210 tons, this with Jerseys leading group of vessels with the Janvarins in second place.

1900s:

However by 1800, David Lee in The Robins in Gaspe, a book, stated that Robin only had four ships, which demonstrates the fluctuations in the fortune experienced in times of war, by those engaged in the fishing trade. Through the years 1766-1842 Jersey had profited by the British conquests in Canada and it almost transformed the Gaspe coast into a Jersey Colony. In the 1950s Clement and co became the last jersey company trading in Newfoundland.

Charles Robin:

Charles Robin is arguably one of the most important people in Jerseys fishing history. He was born in St Brelades during 1743 and by 1763 he was a captain of a ship working in the Newfoundland Cod Trade. In 1765 him and his two brothers and another two formed a firm which developed fishing grounds off Cape Breton Island and the Gaspe region. The company then sold dried cod to Portugal and Spain, and they sold salmon, furs, and timber to Quebec.

Coloring

The Harbour development –

Over the years, the harbour did develop a lot. From the 19th century to the 21st century, the size, technicality and involvement has changed dramatically as the roads and land grew near the harbour.

In the 19th Century the Old Harbour was constructed. The Chamber of Commerce urged the States Assembly to build a new harbour, but they refused, so the Chamber took it into their own hands and paid to upgrade the harbour in 1790. To shelter the jetty and harbour a new breakwater was constructed and in 1814 the merchants constructed the roads now known as Commercial Buildings and Le Quai des Marchand’s. They did this to connect the harbours to the town and in 1832 construction was finished on the Esplanade and its sea wall. In 1837, a rapid expansion in shipping led the States of Jersey to order the construction of two new piers: the Victoria and Albert Piers

Harbour trip –

St Helier Harbour is the main Harbour in Jersey. This harbour is used to dock Jersey citizens boats, as well as how Jersey citizens travel to and from the Island on the Condon Ferry. There are 3 marinas in St Helier Harbour, which are used for private yachts on pontoons and drying harbours for commercial shipping, with facilities including a dock for lift-on/lift-off cargo ships, roll-on/roll-off ferry berths and a tanker berth. This harbour is operated by Ports of Jersey, the operative government company.

Today, Ports of Jersey operates all entry and exit points to the island, including harbours and airport. They have plans to re-develop St Helier Harbour into a modern commercial maritime hub.

Currently this harbour is used for citizens to dock their boats and for cargo ships to leave and return with goods from other places around the world

Photoshoot 1 –

Photoshoot 2 –

Final photos chosen before editing –

Evaluation of chosen photos –

I chose to pick these photos because they all have very distinct colouring of either yellow and red. Due to some of the photos being taken around the harbour, yellow and red are the most prominent colours I saw so I thought that it would be nice for that to be the focal point of my photoshoot.

The photos used from the maritime museum I wanted to help dictate the history of the harbour so I thought that the two would work really well with each other to almost show a story of the harbour and the boats that reside in it now, and societies ago.

I thought that due to the fact that I haven’t really included colour in my previous shoots, I can make this one colour based.

Edits analysation –

For my edits, I want to group some photos together, the photos with prominent red colouring in them will be together, prominent yellow will stay together too and the photos with both red and yellow will be sperate from all others.

I want to mute all colours from photos that aren’t the prominent red or yellow colouring by making the back of the colour black and white.

Edit 1 –

To achieve this edit, I used the HUE dials, and muted all insufficient colours in the photo and with the red colour I wanted to keep, I saturated the colour to 100% making it a lot more prominent . I wanted to enhance the red in this photo due to the almost dominant power this boat clock holds. It is the focal point of St Helier harbour and is the first thing you see as you come through the tunnel on the way into town.

Edit 2 –

For this edit I did the exact same thing as edit 1, changed the hue and saturations and heightened any saturation I needed more prominent. The importance of the red in this photo is to show the danger and things that the island had to earn to have what it does. Since the harbour played a fair part in the occupation, and boating life of jersey, the red shows the hurt and the history of the harbour and the areas surrounding it making it a focal part of the liberation area and the surrounding harbours.

Edit 3 –

In this edit, I initially muted all colours apart from yellow to emphasize it, however I started to play around with the luminance of the colour and thought that if I enhance it, the colour will make the photo more eye-catching and intriguing for people who view it.

Edit 4 –

With this photo, I wanted to focus on the colour. Instead of muting them, I wanted to enhance them, the pictures in this photo show a history to out island and what was not only worked for but important to the society who live here. The colour brings the photo to life and helps show a story through them, even with minimal information to grasp.

Edit 5 –

For this edit, The colour editing proved quite difficult due to the orange and yellow hues on the floor and the boeys. I stuck with keeping the yellow hues in even through the floor seemed to interrupt the black and white overall vibe of the photo so more editing may be needed on this one. The boeys seem to be a very big part of seaman life throughout the years so I thought keeping them as the main colour could emphasize their importance.

Edit 6 –

This edit initially had a lot of yellow, green and red, but due to the hues in the background I decided to focus on the red and the view of the harbour. The view included some yellow, blue and green hues, which would have made it substantially more difficult to cancel out from the background. So, I stuck to red. Also increasing the clarity and texture, and tone of the picture.

Edit 7 –

This photo almost gave me eerie feel to it due to the well shown rule of thirds so I thought while still keeping the red colour in the photo, I made the texture and shadows quite prominent to keep the eerie feeling about it.

Edit 8 –

This photo, like the other, it has a scary eerie kind of feeling to it. I wanted the shadows to really be dramatic as well as the colour red to pop out a lot. The use of muting all the colours apart from red really helps to do this because that alone enhances the shadows and whites in the photo making the red really pop.

Edit 9 –

With this edit, I wanted to include some of the wildlife that you find in the harbour and around the fisheries that we saw. I wanted to still stick to the idea of muting all colours apart from one in particular, but with this one it seemed quite difficult. Because the colours in the original photo aren’t man made, like paint it was difficult to segregate the different hues of orange and red and yellow. I played around with each colour and decided to stick with red and see how it played out.

I also did focus on the shadows and brightness and leant towards having this photo more bright. I levelled out the shadows and highlights as much as I could, while still keeping the natural lights as well as natural shadows.

Edit 10 –

I loved the use of the border light in this photo and thought that enhancing that would make a really great focal point. I also muted all other colours apart from yellow due to the border light being a yellowy tinge. The colour yellow also depicts an aging feel to the photo and due to this photo showing a ancient boat which resided in the harbour years ago.

I enhanced shadows and highlights in this photo, and due to this photo being taken not at a front facing angle I decided to crop and move the photo slightly to give more of a face forward look.

Edit 11 –

These photos from the museum really all show the history of the boats and harbours but due to the ominous and spooky feeling of this photo, I decided to really focus on the shadows and the darkness of the photo, while still looking at segregating the colour yellow to give the photo a focal point. This could also show that the history of the harbour is not all good and positive, there were dark times and things that weren’t good that circled the harbour too.

I made the photo more clear and enhanced the texture to give the photo more of a realistic feel rather then a photo as well, this is to show that the history of the harbour did happen and should be taught and spoken about due to the importance it has on Jersey and it’s society.

Edit 12 –

This photo really looked at the spooky side too, the segregated red really shows a lot and the use of the enhanced shadows and almost deathly mood this photo sets, shows the amount of deaths that surrounds the fishing and boating society even up to this day and age, its a way of remembering and understanding.

Edit 13 –

This photo has the same editing idea of edit 10. The use of using yellow as the depicted colour works so well due to the gold/yellow tinge that the lights let off. I thought the use of shadows and highlights being extenuated worked so well for the eerie ominous feel this photo lets off.

I took a total of 468 photos from the St Helier Harbour Trip we went one, I took a lot of photos slowly angling from left to right, or from one side to the other, so after when I open Lightroom, because they are so similar just slightly adjusted I can merge them together and it will work perfectly like this photo for example.

I used these photos to create this panorama, the easiest way to create a panorama is to start on one side of the subject, and whilst trying to keep the height the same, slowly glide the camera to the opposite side, taking multiple photos.

St Helier Harbour

St Helier Harbour is the main Harbour in Jersey. This harbour is used to dock Jersey citizens boats, as well as how Jersey citizens travel to and from the Island on the Condon Ferry. There are 3 marinas in St Helier Harbour, which are used for private yachts on pontoons and drying harbours for commercial shipping, with facilities including a dock for lift-on/lift-off cargo ships, roll-on/roll-off ferry berths and a tanker berth. This harbour is operated by Ports of Jersey, the operative government company.

A Berth- A designated area where a vessel may be moored, typically for unloading and loading, assigned by an authority – in this example, Ports of Jersey.

The harbour gains its name from the 6th-century ascetic hermit from Belgium, Helier (Helierius).

The Old Harbour

This area is known as the Old Harbour, because it was the English and French Harbour with berths for over 500 motorboats and sailing yachts used for leisurely purposes. This resulted in the boats being able to dry out on the mud below, when it was low tide. Down here is where South pier and, the abandoned pub, La Folie Inn, are and have become an area in which marine engineers are working for South Pier Marina and St Helier Yacht club. Back in 1790, this was only a small jetty at the side of the island where ships coming into the island could go.

Construction

In the 19th Century the Old Harbour was constructed. The Chamber of Commerce urged the States Assembly to build a new harbour, but they refused, so the Chamber took it into their own hands and paid to upgrade the harbour in 1790. To shelter the jetty and harbour a new breakwater was constructed and in 1814 the merchants constructed the roads now known as Commercial Buildings and Le Quai des Marchands. They did this to connect the harbours to the town and in 1832 construction was finished on the Esplanade and its sea wall. In 1837, a rapid expansion in shipping led the States of Jersey to order the construction of two new piers: the Victoria and Albert Piers.

The Main Harbour

The main harbour provides deep water berths for commercial vessels alongside the Victoria Quay and New North Quay.

Today, Ports of Jersey operates all entry and exit points to the island, including harbours and airport. They have plans to re-develop St Helier Harbour into a modern commercial maritime hub.

Currently this harbour is used for citizens to dock their boats and for cargo ships to leave and return with goods from other places around the world.

Elizabeth Harbour

The Elizabeth Harbour consists of a ferry terminal, two roll-on/roll-off ferry berths and a trailer park for shipping containers. This Harbour is also used to travel to Poole, Guernsey, and St Malo, traditional ferries to Saint-Malo, Guernsey and Portsmouth and foot passenger ferries to Granville, Barneville-Carteret and Sark.

Involved within this are three marinas known as:

• The La Collette Yacht Basin,
• The Saint Helier Marina (built in 1980),
• The Elizabeth Marina,

Out of all of these, The La Collette Yacht Basin is the only one which provides non-tidal, 24-hour access to the sea, leading it to be home to Jersey’s commercial fishing community.

Development of the Harbour

Plan:

For this photoshoot, as a class we went to listen to a mini lecture at the SJ photo archive learning all about the archives and some history about photographers on the island.

We then went on a tour around st helier harbour with an old sea captain called Sir Captain Nibbs. who told us all about the history of the harbour and the fishermen from back in the day who were involved in the Jersey cod trades.

To finish off we then went for another walk around the harbour on the other side and took more photos of the boats and interesting areas in which represented the fishing trade then and now.

Photoshoot contact sheet

Evaluation

Here I have taken a good range of images which represent different parts of the harbour. There are photos of the older boats and some of the newer modern boats. I have images of Captain Nibbs with his official captain hat on whilst giving us a presentational speech about the harbour and the work that did and still goes on now.

Saint Helier harbour is the main harbour of Jersey through its occupation of most of St Helier down the south coast. This harbour is operated by Ports of Jersey, the operative government company. Here, there are 3 marinas for private yachts on pontoons and drying harbours for commercial shipping, with facilities including a dock for lift-on/lift-off cargo ships, roll-on/roll-off ferry berths and a tanker berth.

Definition: a berth is a designated area where a vessel may be moored, typically for unloading and loading, assigned by an authority – in this example, Ports of Jersey.

The harbour gains its name from the 6th-century ascetic hermit from Belgium, Helier (Helierius).

The Old Harbour:

This area got its name as the Old Harbour, also known as the English and French harbour, with berths for over 500 motorboats and sailing yachts used for leisurely purposes, resulting in them being able to dry out on the mud below during low tide. Down here is where South pier and, the abandoned pub, La Folie Inn, are and have become an area in which marine engineers are working for South Pier Marina and St Helier Yacht club.

Back in 1790, this was only a small jetty at the side of the island where ships coming into the island could go.

Construction:

The 19th century is when the harbour was properly constructed. This only occurred after the Chamber of Commerce was denied by the States Assembly to build a new harbour, therefore they took it into their own hands to upgrade it in 1790. This consisted of a new breakwater of which its purpose was to shelter the jetty’s and harbour.

This led onto the merchants constructing the roads now known as Commercial Buildings and Le Quai des Marchands in 1814 in order to connect the harbours to the island to make them more accessible. After this, construction was concluded on the Esplanade and its sea wall:

An extensive expansion of shipping around 1837 led the States of Jersey to order the construction of two new piers named Victoria pier and Albert pier.

The Main Harbour:

This harbour is home to the deep water berths necessary for commercial vessels along Victoria Quay, where fish wholesalers of Fresh fish Company and Aquamarine fisheries is, and New North Quay.

Elizabeth Harbour:

Here is where high-speed craft and traditional ferries to Poole, Guernsey and Saint-Malo alongside foot passenger ferries to Granville, Barneville-Carteret and Sark use the implemented ferry terminal, two roll-on/roll-off berths and trailer park for shipping containers.

Involved within this are three marinas known as:

• The La Collette Yacht Basin,
• The Saint Helier Marina (built in 1980),
• The Elizabeth Marina,

Out of all of these, The La Collette Yacht Basin is the only one which provides non-tidal, 24-hour access to the sea, leading it to be home to Jersey’s commercial fishing community.

Development of the harbour:

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.