ED.EM.05
Agriculture
looking back to go forward
with India Hamilton and Maurice Richardson
“..the practices and the deep connection to the land
evident in these images, can offer positions for us to begin to re-imagine Jersey’s agriculturall
future.”
India Hamilton
Down a small overgrown lane, in a dilapidated old farmhouse, sat eight boxes and various files of photographs, slides and negatives. The life’s work of Maurice Richardson, who donated his archive to the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive upon his death in 2022. A former President of the Société (1977-80), this collection of images by Maurice Richardson provides an excellent insight into all aspects of rural and agricultural life in Jersey from the 1960s through to the 1990s.
- the editors
“What is important is the balance of change, and the understanding that we
don’t need to get fixated on any one product, or industry. Every country in the world is being asked to re-address its food security, farmers are being asked to change their techniques and
the environment is calling to be counted.”
India Hamilton
Agriculture was a subject close to Maurice,
himself a small-scale grower, and from a line of farmers stretching back over 400 years. The
photographs show an industry in transition but also an awareness and desire to keep traditionall
practices alive. The photographs are particularly poignant considering how many farms have
closed during the period Maurice was active and since these images were made.
- the editors