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This summer A-Level photography students at Hautlieu School have been working on a Masterplan community arts and education project based on the theme of the Future of St Helier in collaboration with Martin Toft and Archisle: The Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme and sponsored by Jersey Development Company and Camerons Limited.
Students were challenged with responding to specific areas, streets and neighbourhoods divided up along the urban vingtainesof St Helier and to explore through research, archives and photography the built-environment, urban living, diverse communities, town planning, land use and re-generation projects.
The programme began on the 12th June at the Société Jersiaise where students engaged passionately in discussions about past and present town developments and took inspiration from a series of talks by Gareth Syvret, Photo- Archivist, Lewis Bush, 2018 ArchisleInternational Photographer-in-Residence, Lee Henry, Managing Director of Jersey Development Company and Kevin Pilley, Director: Policy, Projects and the Historic Environment, States of Jersey.
In the classroom students have been researching historical town records, such as various masterplans and the current review of the Future of St Helier, as well as analysing images from collections in the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive of the work by Ernest Baudoux, Albert Smith, Francis Foot and Percival Dunham depicting St Helier town and life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Supported by a series of workshops facilitated by Hautlieu School’s Photography Department and Lewis Bushstudents developed their projects learning about narrative in contemporary photography and how to construct a visual story using images from their shoots in St Helier. Each student designed a page spread which was then split in half producing a fragmented image reflecting on the nature of experience and diversity of St Helier.
Martin Toft comments. ‘The Masterplan community arts and education project has given young people an opportunity to use photography as a tool to communicate how they feel about the future of St Helier. Hopefully the images presented here in the enclosed supplement will engender a renewed debate in the States of Jersey and its various stakeholders in working towards delivering a sustainable and vibrant vision for the island’s capital and its citizens who either live, work in or visit St Helier’.
Currently, each student are completing the design of a 16-page zine that will be exhibited at the 2018 Guernsey Photography Festival on Saturday 23rd September as part of the Night of Photography installation in St Peter Port.
An outdoor installation of students work on the hoarding of the International Finance Centre adjacent to new public realm, Trenton Square on the Esplanade is also planned in partnership with Jersey Development Company.
The Future of St Helier newsprint is the first publication in a series of planned Masterplan project outcomes developed in collaboration with Dutch award winning design partner Kummer & Herrman. Visit www.masterplan.jefor more information.
