Since schools opened again in early summer of 2020, a group of 48 A-Level photography students at Hautlieu School have been working on an extensive programme of study in their final year exploring the themes of Love and Rebellion.
The results of their work can be seen in a 56-page newspaper supplement that was printed and distributed island-wide by Jersey Evening Post on Tuesday 18th May and in a multi-media exhibition of films, photobooks, zines and prints at the Berni Gallery, Jersey Arts Centre from 24th May to 13th June.
The programme of study began on Tuesday the 9th June, soon after the death of George Floyd in the USA ,sparking Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Closer to home debates, were raging around the veneration of public statues representing controversial historical figures such as Jerseyman, Sir George Carteret who profiteered from the transatlantic slave trade.
These events were discussed rigorously in class and students began to research local and global context of the legacies of colonialism and racism, as well as protests and activism in art and politics.
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.
The newspaper was kindly sponsored by the Chief Minister and in his foreword, he reflects on a difficult year living with coronavirus, commenting, that “I think all of the students have ably captured both the familiarity of ordinary life during the last year as well as the lived experiences of young people coping with the impacts of lockdown, isolation and illness. These images remind us of the strain that we have all felt during the Covid-19 pandemic as our everyday lives have been transformed in an unprecedented way.”
Photographer and teacher Martin Toft who led and managed the education and community arts projects, said: “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.
“The imagery presented here in a newspaper and exhibition is only a fragment of the enormous amount of work that each student has produced, but it provides a fascinating insight into how young people have used photography as a tool to explore and interpret real and imagined experiences – so extraordinarily amplified in a year of coronavirus where everything changed.”
The multi-media exhibition of films, photobooks, zines and prints is at the Berni Gallery, Jersey Arts Centre from 24th May to 13th June.
Main image is by Chloe Best, ‘Through a looking glass’.
