Launch of Love & Rebellion newspaper

Since schools opened again in early summer of 2020 a cohort of 48 A-Level photography students Hautlieu School have been working on an extensive programme of study in their final year exploring the themes of LOVE & REBELLION. The results of their work can be seen in a 56-page newspaper supplement printed and distributed island-wide by Jersey Evening Post today Tuesday 18 May and in a multi-media exhibition of films, photobooks, zines and prints at the Berni Gallery, Jersey Arts Centre 24 May – 13 June.

When we look at the images presented, we are reminded of how complex the lives of young people are. This, of course, has been exaggerated by a year of living with a deadly pandemic causing uncertainty and anxiety, especially among school leaving children. What we are confronted with are snapshots of ordinary life alongside other more serious images showing teenagers coping with family, lockdown and isolation. There are images depicting experiences of living at home with chronic illnesses, physical disabilities, mental health problems, as well as playful and optimistic glimpses of social interaction with friends, finding comfort fixing cars or listening to music.

Photography is an excellent medium for recording the mundane and the banal, but within an insular context such vernacular images are rarely on display in public (if we discount social media platforms). What do these ordinary photographs that people make and use every day tell us about our social patterns, personal rituals and structures of identity, or political participation? Photography in Jersey is often depicting the island’s natural beauty, beaches and sea at dawn or dusk endlessly recycling romantic idyll and pictorial clichés. What do we learn from an image of another sunset at Corbière Lighthouse?

At Hautlieu we aim to encourage students to explore subject-matter that is both personal and universal, reflecting upon historical and contemporary discourse informed by critical theory and practice within visual and popular culture. The Love & Rebellion newspaper is the third supplement produced in collaboration between Hautlieu School Photography Department and Jersey Evening Post. In 2018 the first issue was The Future of St Helier and last year the theme of Liberation and Occupation was published in the week leading up to Liberation 75.

The themes for this publication was inspired partly by the 10th (+1) anniversary edition of Guernsey Photography Festival , 23 Sept - 23 October 2021 on the themes of ‘Acts of Love & Rebellion’

Newspaper kindly sponsored by the Chief Minister.
Exhibition kindly sponsored by the Bailiff of Jersey.

Get a copy here!

Archaeology of Finance top projects of 2020 by PH Museum editors

PHmuseum has selected Archaeology of Finance in their top picks of 2020. Since 2015 I have been developing MASTERPLAN - a research project using photography, film and archives to tell the story of the island of Jersey’s contemporary prosperity as an International Finance Centre - and Archaeology of Finance is the latest incarnation reflecting on the material culture and nature of finance work as a process of production.

Last year work from this project was exhibited at TAXED TO THE MAX at Noorderlicht Photography Festival in Groningen curated by Hester Keijser and at Ballarat International Foto Biennale in Australia as part of CAPITAL curated by Gareth Syvret. To learn more visit Masterplan. The project is ongoing.

http://masterplan.je

https://phmuseum.com/picks2020

Launching ED.EM.02 Occupation - at leisure 1940-44

Today on Armistice Day we are publishing the second issue of ED.EM.02 - Occupation at leisure 1940-44. The occupation and subsequent liberation of Jersey in 1945 are key events in the recent shared history of Islanders. The suffering of locals as well as the military and political prisoners brought to the Island as forced labour is well documented, and it is within that context that we take a look at photographs produced by the Occupiers themselves. A selection of images presented here for the first time are held in the Pelz Collection at Photo-Archive Societe-Jersiaise showing German soldiers at leisure.

It was great working on this issue with fellow editor Patrick Cahill and we thank everyone who have been involved in making this issue, especially Alan Allix and Andrew Gilson for sharing their research of the German Field Command 515 and writing a short text about Major Egon Pelz and other Staff Officers in the civil administration.

Get your copy here www.edem.je

Love & Rebellion at Hautlieu School

Together with A-level photography students at Hautlieu School we are developing a project around the themes of LOVE & REBELLION which will culminate in a number of creative outcomes such as photo-zines, films and photo-books. Part of students research is to understand both historical and contemporary context of the legacies of colonialism and racism, as well as art and activism.

Currently students are working on producing short films addressing issues around race, gender, ethnicity, equality and climate change. As part of our resources we have looked at contemporary movements such as Black Lives Matter Jersey CI, Liberate Jersey, The Diversity Network - Jersey XR - Extinction Rebellion Jersey Community both within a local and global context.

It's great to have the expertise of Shannon O' Donnell, former alumni and recently graduate from Documentary Photography University of South Wales to help our students develop their projects in a series of creative workshops. This week we were learning about the Suffragettes, making Dadaist poems and writing manifestos that will inform the concepts and development of their films.

Educational partners include Photo-Archive Societe-Jersiaise and learning resources borrowed from the Claude Cahun collection held at Jersey Heritage. Follow students progress here on our blog.

https://www.hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo21al/

Dispatch 1: ITALY

Having just arrived in Rome after making a steadfast journey from Jersey stopping for a couple of days in the ports of Genoa and Livorno, I have an appointment at the Archivio centrale dello Stato (Central States Archives) to study merchant networks as part of ÊNTREPOT my longstanding photographic research project about Jersey’s maritime history and economy in the West Indies, South America and Mediterranean. Very little original research has been done in the outposts in the merchant triangle and we know from several literary sources and archival records that Italy was a major entrepot in the maritime network of Jersey cod-merchants engaged in the Atlantic trade.

Hidden in the archives of the Lord Coutance Library Société Jersiaise are the Briard Papers, which includes (amongst many other things) a Deck Log and Business Letters. Captain Peter Briard (senior) was employed by the Robin company of Jersey, the leading cod firm in Gaspe, Canada. He successfully mastered the Robin ships “Day”, “Oliver Blanchard”, “Christopher Columbus” and “C.R.C.” and Briard commanded the run from Gaspe to Naples or Palermo every year for nearly twenty years, starting in 1818 and continuing until the late 1830s. Naples was a central port, or rather the ‘central information point’ (Ommer 1990:217) where Robin would send ships to receive orders from Jersey with market decisions of where to trade its cargo.

After selling his codfish in Italy or Sicily, Briard loaded a cargo in the Mediterranean (eg. oranges and lemons from Palermo, shumac and brimstone from Messina, olive oil from Gallipoli, beans from Trieste) returning back to Jersey, or more often Liverpool, where the Robins had a merchant house and agent stationed as well. (Jamieson 1986:333). Looking through Peter Briard’s Deck Log we can follow the voyage pattern of the ship “C.R.C” more closely. For example, it left Paspebiac in the Bay of Chaleurs on Sunday 13 Nov, 1831 and arrived in Bahia (Brazil) on Sunday 2 January 1832. From here it sailed on 28 Jan to Trieste arriving three months later on 28 April. It then went to Messina on 22 May, Palermo 11 Sept before setting sail for Liverpool where it cast anchor on Sunday 28 October. (Briard, Deck Log 1818 – 1859.)

To understand better how the markets in Italy operated and why Robin sailed to different ports in the Mediterranean to trade goods from the colonies in the Americas we can gain an insight from reading Peter Briard’s Business Letters from 1825-1841. If we take the above voyages as entries we learn that markets were very volatile and collecting a new cargo on the return journey was not straight forward. The cargo on the ship “C.R.C.” from Paspebiac to Bahia was loaded with dried cod and left Brazil with a cargo of 305 cases of sugar, 189 bags of coffee and 100 bags of cotton. A couple of weeks after “C.R.C.”s arrival in Trieste, Captain Briard wrote a letter to James Robin Esq. on 15 May, 1832 to inform him ‘that they finished unloading the cargo on the 9th all in good order, but it appears that the sugars was much shorter in weight than the generality of the cargoes from Bahia, which surprises me as the cases throughout were in good condition.’ Briard carries on writing that ‘the deficiency of the cargo must lie in the workhouses at Bahia and the embezzlement by the Negroes there in bringing it alongside.’

Clearly, Briard are blaming the slaves in Brazil for his misfortune rather than taking responsibility as the captain of the ship that the cargo is correctly weighted and loaded. He continues: ‘we now have 100 lbs of Ballast in the ship & expect to sail tomorrow or the next day for Messina – although the last advices from there affords no better prospect for a freight at this moment (Briard, Business Letters, Trieste 15 May, 1832). A day after his arrival in Messina, Briard writes another letter to his employer to inform him that ‘the prospects from this place for a freight are equally as dull as I had been informed at Trieste & am now quite at a loss where to go to & what to do to find employment for the ship.’ (Briard, Business Letters, Messina 25 July 1832). In another example the “C.R.C”. ship left Paspebiac on 4 August 1840 with 4634.2 quantils of dried cod of superior quality for Naples, but upon arrival failed to find a suitable market and had been forced to move to Ancona (Ommer in Jamieson 1985: 262).

In the next 6 weeks I will be making my own journey around Italy re-imagining enterprising Jersey mariners befriending Latin cultures in entrepots on the Mediterranean and Adriatic seaports. This trip has been made possible with a grant from Millennium History Fellowship and support from Photo-Archive Societe-Jersiaise.

Buon viaggio!

Interview with ITV Channel TV on Jersey's colonial past

Watch a 3-part series of television programmes Special Report: Race, Racism and the Channel Islands by reporter Gary Burgess for ITV Channel TV that is being broadcast this week (Wed 17, Thurs 18, Fri 19 June) at 6 o'clock news. It features personal views and experiences of BAME islanders and also includes an interview with me about my photographic research projects on Jersey's historical maritime trade and merchant networks in the West Indies, South America and Mediterranean, including direct links with slave ownerships.

Spring Into Action - 21 Artists donate to the Frontline

I am currently participating in a fundraising exhibition Spring Into Action at Private & Public Gallery where works from 21 artists with a connection to Jersey are for sale with proceeds being donated to The Bailiff Covid fund to support Health and Community activities and Jersey Women’s Refuge which supports vulnerable women in Jersey. The exhibition opened to the public on the 1st of June and runs for two weeks. In addition to a catalogue, a film and 3D virtual tour has been made for those who wish to experience the exhibition at home in their own comfort without putting themselves at risk during coronavirus outbreak. Please click here for viewing.

I have donated Gift Of Tane (2017) from my recent book, Te Ahi Kā – The Fires of Occupation. Published in Nov 2018 with Dewi Lewis Publishing and designed by Ania Nałęcka Milach the book has received worldwide reviews, awards and been presented at multiple international photography fairs and festivals. All editions of my book is also for sale, including trade editions, Special Edition and Collectors Edition.

In Māori culture hunting is more than an act of killing an animal for meat. It is spiritual connection with nature itself and acknowledging tikanga (customary practices) handed down from their ancestors. Once an animal is killed the heart is cut out and given back to Tāne Mahuta, the God of the Forest with a blessing. It is tradition that the youngest member of the hunting party performs the offering and say a prayer. Here in this image, Te Arahi holds the heart of deer just killed by her father Kapi Topine on the banks of the Whanganui River on the North Island of New Zealand.

Field Hospital - a new project during Island Lockdown in Jersey

The island’s response and management of the current coronavirus outbreak is significant in Jersey’s living memory. This event may turn out to be as decisive as the German Occupation in 1940-45. A temporary field hospital has been built at Millbrook Playing Field as part of Jersey’s defence against a spread of the pandemic. Site preparation began on 9 April and on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, Jersey’s own, temporary, Nightingale Wing of the General Hospital was officially opened by HRH The Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward via video link. The Jersey Nightingale Hospital create an additional 180 beds for coronavirus patients, who will be provided with acute, enhanced and ongoing levels of medical care. 

In the past five weeks I have been visiting the site at Millbrook in the parish of St Lawrence where I live. Focusing on the people involved in building it from official visits by politicians, civil servants, project managers and trade professionals to the many men and women of health professionals, volunteers and cleaners preparing the field hospital for operational service. The project is divided into two halves: Care & Construction and on completion a set of images will be part of the Island Lockdown collection at the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive, the island’s principal photographic collection with over 100,000 images dating from the mid-1840s to the present day.

The Nightingale Wing is now on standby awaiting its first patients of Covid-19 after a 36 hours of assimilation where staff and volunteers acted out a number of clinical scenarios as a means to train its personnel and monitor how the field hospital itself would cope in a perceived spike of new cases emerging as the current island lockdown is slowly being lifted. This sense of theatre and play is essential to the very nature of photography which from its very outset in early 19th century was imbued with a degree of artifice. 

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