STATES OF THE
BLONDE HEDGEHOG
Just fifteen kilometres off the french coast, in the midst of the English Channel, lies the little island of Alderney.
On eight square kilometres, two thousand people are living here. And blonde hedgehogs.
Braye Bay and the harbour.
Krysi and Cat of Little Rock Cafe.
Due its strategically interesting location in the channel and the closeness to the french coast, Alderney was always exposed to the desires of European potentates. The island suffered centuries of occupation by changing powers, whose traces are carved highly visible into the land.
Fort Grosnez in the harbour.
Ruby, Miss Alderney 2015 and her maid of honour Shauna.
Gannet colony on Les Etacs.
Repurposed bunkers at Roselle Point.
James, Painter.
A hedge in St. Anne.
In the third century, the Romans were the first to fortify the island, carried on later by the French and the British, building forts all over Alderney. In 1940, the Germans occupied an abandoned island, it was evacuated just days before the invasion.
Due to the impending german occupation, the entire population of Alderney was evacuated in 1940.
Amongst them Miriam, who returned to the island in December 1945.
Bunker partys are one way the islanders repurpose the remainders of the german occupation during WWII.
The Nazis set up two concentration camps and two labour camps utilising jewish slave labourers and prisoners of war to further fortify the island, more than 700 inmates lost their lives.
The gate posts are all that is left of nazi labour camp Lager Borkum.
In the streets of St. Anne.
The chambers of the States of Alderney.
Today Alderney is an independent British Crown dependency and neither a part of the UK nor the EU. It has its own parliament and its own president.
Fort Les Hommeaux Florains.
Stuart Trought, President of the States Of Alderney.
Arsenal Ground, home of the Alderney FC.
Jordan, Demi and Aimee.
The campground, site of german concentration camp Lager Norderney.
On its hollowed out structure of the past, people now live in a kind of miniature world. A tax haven with its own radio station, airport, a railway, even a beauty competition, and with inhabitants dealing with the dark chambers of history blithely by repurposing the concrete remains as party locations, storage rooms and holiday homes.
German propaganda inside a bunker.
Alderney's oldest pub, Marais Hall.
The town.
Royston researches Auregnais, the lost language of the island.
Slave labourers had to dig adits into the rock to store amunition.
This tunnel connected the concentration camp Lager Sylt with the SS commander's chalet.
The old radio station on Essex Hill.
At night the lights of the nuclear power plant in Flamanville shine over from France.
Jake, Sailor.
Car wrecks at La Tchue.
Emma and her race car at the Alderney Hillclimb race.
Telegraph bay.
Entrance to an old adit.
Inside Alderney Methodist Church.
Members of the Alderney Shooting Club.
Linving room decorations.
The Odeon overlooking Mannez station, one of two stops of the Alderney railway.
Ken, train driver for the Alderney Railway.
The Enders-Bunker was built in 1944.
Rue des Mielles.
Tony Le Blanc of Alderney's own radio station, QuayFM.
A blonde hedgehog.
Waste dump in a closed down quarry.
German defense works at Bibette Head.
Rue de Braye.
The Salvation Army knitting group.
Saline Bay.
Beeke and Wencke, daughters of the german dentists.
Cricket at The Butes.
Joe, Bon Vivant.
James and Paul at the carp pond.
In St. Anne.
A sentry on the site of concentration camp Lager Sylt.
The Hammond Memorial.
Simon the builder, his brother in law, his wife and her best friend.
Double-decker buses are not allowed on the island. The only one is a summerhouse.
Proud of their political independence but at the same time shutting their eyes to their dependence of a Europe in flux, Alderney remains an unnoticed island in the grey sea between France and Britain - a microcosm, struggling in its search for a contemporary European identity.
The english channel.
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