WATCH: International photographer shares tricks of trade with young Jersey artists

Friday 10 August 2018

Lewis Bush, Archisle's International Photographer in Residence 2018, has spent the week teaching aspiring professional snappers the ins-and-outs of his art as part of a workshop with Jersey Youth Arts.

The week-long workshop culminates with an exhibition at the St. James Centre today between 17:00 and 19:00.

Leah Finch, Chloie Houiellebecq, Akio Baudains and Sofia Raffio-Curd will be showing the fruits of their week-long workshop with Lewis Bush. Aged 13 to 16, they have all been interested in photography for quite some time and some of them study it as part of their A-levels.

They jumped on the opportunity of spending a week with a professional artist who is known for a multi-disciplinary practice which includes photography, writing and curation to explore ideas about the way power is created and exercised in the world. 

Lewis arrived in Jersey in April after being named Archisle's International Photographer in Residence. He received a bursary of £10,000 for an exhibition of new work which will take part between 20 and 29 September at Piquet House, on Royal Square. His works will then be added to the Archisle Collection at the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive for future public enjoyment.

Pictured: Lewis Bush spent time on location with the students.

While most of his time has been spent working on the exhibition, which will look into the finance industry and its influence on Jersey, Lewis has also been going into schools to teach the island's students about photography. This week's workshop was part of a partnership between Archisle and Jersey Youth Arts. Carmel Butel, Senior Youth Worker, explained that the workshop helps reach out a wider audience that might not have gotten the chance to see Lewis in schools.

The students went with Lewis on location around Gorey Castle, Grouville common, St. Catherine's woods as well as Grosnez and Plemont to take their shots. They also spent time with him and Karen Biddlecombe, Communications Assistant at Archisle, editing their shots and selecting those to go in the exhibition. 

Lewis, who teaches at university in London, has really enjoyed this new experience. "I usually teach older students, over a long period of time. It was my first time working very intensively over a very short space of time. 

"At university, when the students get to me some of them have given up on zany ideas. This week's students have come up with amazing ideas. As they are at an early stage and are still experimenting with photography, .I also had lots to teach them. I tried to suggest them ideas and help them see what is coming naturally out of the images. Some students had a clear idea of what they wanted to do so I only guided them into developing their ideas. You adapt to the level of each person."

The students also enjoyed their time with Lewis. Akio said: "I have probably taken more good photos in a week than in a whole year of GCSE. We had more opportunity to go to different places. When you have only an hour a week, you are never going to achieve much."

For Leah, who has done three workshops with Archisle including one with Tanja Deman last year, the experience is new every time. "I enjoy getting to work with different artists who have different styles and ideas. Lewis's work is like nothing I had seen before. It was great to work with him because it got me out of my comfort zone."

After three days of shooting, the group regrouped to edit their shots and select those to go on display at St. James Centre. Karen Biddlecombe explained: "We don't like to limit how many they show but we ask for a minimum of four. Every day during the week we spent at least an hour downloading the photos to help the editing process. We spent a whole day editing, printing shots and then narrowing it down to those that will be shown."

Watch the Express video to see how the students prepared for their exhibition...