Since 2017 I have been working on Entrepôt - a maritime photographic research project exploring the history of Jersey’s cod-fishing trade in Canada and its merchant networks in the West Indies, South America and Mediterranean in the 18th and 19th centuries. The project is centred around cod-merchant Charles Robin who founded the most successful Jersey firm on the Gaspé coast in 1766 and explore how, through the prism of colonial and family history, Jersey’s original wealth generated by the proceeds from the North Atlantic fisheries and maritime trade lay the foundation for the island’s future prosperity.

Several trips to colonial outposts in the maritime network has been completed, travelling over 60,000 kms across land, sea and air, researching multiple archives, collaborating with many experts (both locally and internationally) and developing a large repository of new visual and textual material. A number of outcomes, such as publications, exhibitions and a film are planned for completion in the next 3 years. Recently, I received a development grant from ArtHouse Jersey to produce a 5 minute trailer of the film, The Seaflower Venture and is currently in production collaborating with a sound designer, script editor and film editor. The film will feature footage shot in historical locations in Jersey, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Portugal and England between 2017-2023.

The narrative of the film will be created around a sea journey of a Robin ship loosely based on an actual abstract journal of a voyage recorded in a Deck Log written by sea captain Peter Briard (senior) who was employed by the Charles Robin Company and successfully mastered the Robin ships ‘Day’, ‘Oliver Blanchard’, ‘Christopher Columbus’ and ‘C.R.C.’ from Gaspé to Naples and Palermo every year for nearly twenty years between 1818 to the late 1830s. It will include a two-hander poetic dialogue between a young and old Charles Robin based on extracts from two archival documents, such as his own 18th century diary (The Early Journals of Charles Robin 1767-73 & 1787) and an unpublished biographical narrative (The Seaflower Venture) written by Phyllis Gertrude Ross aka Lady McKie held in the library at Société Jersiaise. The narration will be voiced by John Henry Falle aka The Story Beast.

Here a few film stills…

#entrepot #seaflowerventure