SJPA/2024/14/A/12, Christine Boniface, Tackbrook, St Aubin’s, c. 1904-06, from The Airey Family Collection
The Airey Family Collection (SJPA/2024/14) consists of a wide-ranging series of photographic images that recently came into the possession of the SJPA. Made up of two photographic albums, along with forty loose prints, the images within the series documents a variety of individuals across two Jersey families, the Airey family and the Boniface family (connected through marriage), between the period of c.1900 and 1965. The images from this collection show various members of both families within everyday settings, such as in family homes, private gardens, parks, beaches, urban areas in St Helier, as well as some early 1900s studio portraits.
What is striking about the images is that they have a strong sense of rawness and subjectivity to them. It can be quickly established that the images from the collection (except for the studio portraits) were most likely taken by amateur photographers, created with the intention of simply capturing moments in time, rather than to produce images with any obvious artistic or professional intent. This visual style associated with the images can be best described as examples of ‘snapshot photography’, with the collection providing some wonderful examples of such.
Snapshot photography, which can be described loosely as a basic ‘point and shoot’ approach to image making, emerged as a popular aesthetic trend from the beginning of the early 20th century, as changes and developments in camera technology led to cheaper, more portable and easy to use cameras, allowing everyday consumers who may not previously have had the money, time or technical knowledge necessary to operate large, bulky plate cameras, were suddenly afforded the opportunity to actively take photographs. The subsequent development of new, revolutionary handheld cameras, such as the iconic Kodak ‘Box Brownie’ camera designed in February 1900, led to a rapid emergence of this new and exciting style of photography, as more and more photographs were created by amateur enthusiasts simply photographing what and how they pleased in a quick and instinctive manner, rather than follow any conventional rules typically associated with photography.
Whilst objectively speaking, snapshot style photographs taken by amateur photographers with the simple desire to record a moment in time, might not be of the same technical quality as images carefully made by professional photographers and/or experienced amateur working with greater skill and perhaps more artistic intent, that is not to say snapshot style photographs are something to simply disregard. Conversely, as these examples from the Airey Family Collection show, snapshot style photographs can still be extremely effective and successful in capturing moments in time, in a manner that is raw, authentic and emotionally charged. Arguably, the very fact that snapshot photographs are often made in a much simpler and intuitive way, can create a certain rawness and honesty which more carefully constructed images by a professional photographer might otherwise struggle to evoke.
SJPA/2024/14/BC/06, Jordan Airey (left) age 5 with Brian Airey (right) age 2, from The Airey Family Collection
SJPA/2024/14/BC/22, Elderly man sat on bench with a terrier dog, from the Airey Family Collection
SJPA/2024/14/BC/25, Two young individuals with a donkey. View of the Sand dunes in the background, from the Airey Family Collection
If you would like to find out more about this collection, or anything else from the photographic collections please do get in touch with the Photographic Archive team.
Written by Max Le Feuvre, Assistant Archivist, Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive.
