Featured in the Jersey Evening Post today is our 52-pages IDENTITY & COMMUNITY newspaper featuring images produced from a variety of projects over a two-year academic programme of study by my A-Level photography students at Hautlieu School.

As part of the research and contextual studies students were asked to engage with some of the key questions raised by the Government of Jersey’s Island Identity project and explore through their own photographic studies how they interpret and identify distinctive qualities of island life. What can we learn from looking at a set of photographs produced by young islanders? At first sight they show us a seemingly random set of images of places, people and objects - some familiar, others surprising. For example, a fish stuffed in a plastic bottle may ask us to consider more closely our marine environment, commercial fishing or food consumption. As a combined sequence of images they represent different views that in many ways comment on a wider discussion on some of the primary objectives explored in the Island Identity project, such as ‘how we see ourselves’ and ‘how others see us.’

The newspaper was kindly sponsored by Deputy Carolyn Labey, Minister for International Development and Assistant Chief Minister who in her foreword shares her personal thoughts on what makes Jersey special to her in context of the Island Identity project led by her department. She said, ‘Identity involves searching our soul, engaging with difficult issues, and asking not only who we are, but how others see us and what a vision for the future might look like. The perspective of students and young people in this debate is critical. Identity is a broad and far-reaching concept, one unique to all of us. This collection of images recognises both our differences and our commonalties. These times may be uncertain, but in my view the topic – ‘what Jersey means to you’ – is a fundamentally optimistic and forward-looking one.’

At Hautlieu we have a long tradition of collaborating with external agencies and professional individuals and are indebted for the time and inspiration provided by the following people; Lucy Layton, outreach curator at Jersey Heritage, Stuart Fell, architect and building historian, Patrick Cahill, photo-archivist at Société Jersiaise, Shannon O’Donnell digitisation and outreach co-ordinator at Société Jersiaise, Francesco Vincenti & Claudia Runcio, creators of 2 Lives NFT exhibition, Yulia Makeyeva, artist and founder of Connect With Art and Liam Nunn, animator and founder of MILK Creative Studios.