Kacey Jeffers

Kacey Jeffers

Uniform

8" x 10"
Hardcover
56 pages
First Edition
Self-Published
2020

From the artist:

Each Sunday evening, from preschool until I was a 4th grader at the Combermere Primary School (now Violet O. Jeffers-Nicholls) my mother hunched her back and contorted her limbs, like the woman in Degas’ “The Laundress.” Three cotton yellow shirts and two khaki pants, steamed, ironed, and starched to perfection. 

At mornings she marveled at her work and cautioned, “Go to school and learn, and bring this uniform back home just how you left with it.” I tried my best to dodge chewing gum, ink, and schoolyard scuffles while keeping up my grades and having fun. My shirt stayed in my pants, pants firmly on my waist, with seams remaining razor sharp. 

She passed the baton–the iron–with eagerness and some reluctance. She had good reason to. The occasional burning of fabric proved that I could never live up to her standards. By the time I was a pupil at the Gingerland Secondary School, each morning I sleepily dragged the iron across my brown cotton shirt and khaki pants. No grace, no elegance. The finished garments looked okay, as if I was preoccupied with self-preservation and navigating my teen years more than I was with self-presentation. 

Twelve years ago, while attending the Nevis Sixth Form College, I wore a white cotton shirt with brown pants. This uniform holds weight. It says, “Here is a young professional man. He is serious about education and his future.” 

I was an 18-year-old filled with uncertainty: Questioning the status quo, wanting more but unable to define it, longing to belong, and desiring fuller expression. At the end of the school year, my dark brown pants faded to a lighter shade, and bright white shirts dimmed. But a creative spirit was slowly awakening within me. 

And now, here we are. Full circle.  

UNIFORM unfolded over the course of two weeks at the end of the school year, in abandoned spaces, classrooms, libraries, halls, and music rooms. The project features 28 students, in ages ranging from 10-18, from 14 schools here in Nevis.

Our brief conversations revealed youths who are engaged with the world around them. I left feeling impressed with how they framed topics such as female empowerment, self-acceptance, bullying, and loss within the context of their personal experiences.

What started as an idea to catalog the different school uniforms of Nevis, evolved into a nostalgic desire to recognize individuality. 

UNIFORM, is a message in a bottle, celebrating the ever-evolving distinctiveness that lives within all of us.  

Uniform is a series of portraits of Nevisian youth in their regulation garb shot in situ at Nevis’s 14 schools. 

Alixandria, 11, Montessori Academy Image by ©Kacey Jeffers

Book review by Dana Stirling |

I personally grew up never really wearing school uniforms. When I was younger, we used to all look very similar, based on those days clothe style or whatever your parents decided to put you in that day without you having a say. Maybe we had a school shirt, maybe a dress code but not school uniform like many place or schools have around the world. It could be a cultural thing, or even depends on the specific city you live in within the same country. People can have a range of experiences with uniforms or the lack of them.

 For me, the notion of school uniform always seemed both exciting and terrifying at the same time. As a young person you are building your identity and you are trying to still figure yourself out. Who do you like, what do you like, why do you like it? You are forming the foundation of your personality all while dealing with school, friends and over all being a kid/teen. Uniforms could be restricting as we often use our cloth as a way to show the outside world who we are on the inside. The uniform could make you feel like you are just another kid in the hallway, all while you are trying to single yourself out and understand why you and how you are different.

Yet, on the other hand, as someone who grew up with body image issues, I think a uniform could have helped in that aspect. You suddenly don’t need to afford nice cloth or convince your mother to buy you a specific brand. Everyone becomes one – uniformed. The uniform can cut that barrier of class, status, economics and create a plain level for everyone to start from. You are not judged by your style or cloth, but by, hopefully, your personality.

Roberto, 16 of the Nevis International Secondary School Image by ©Kacey Jeffers

Thaine, 12, Maude Crosse Preparatory Image by ©Kacey Jeffers

In his book, Kacey Jeffers documents this notion of uniform of Nevisian kids in their regulation garb, shot in situ at Nevis’s fourteen schools. Jeffers, in an article on Vouge.com says something that I think is key and is why photography is so great, he says “What do I have here that no one else has access to? I went from I’m not going to shoot here, to Okay, let me see what I can do here.” Jeffers went back to his home Nevis and took this opportunity to document the environment, people and a place that he has a connection to and the opportunity to highlight and share with others. This is what photographers do best, they look at their personal experience, life, community and make them a global visual experience that many can learn from, enjoy and discover.

When I originally came across the book and its subject matter, I thought that maybe the photos inside would be typological. I thought the teens photographed would be, just like the uniform – similar to one another. Same pose, same composition etc. However, I think Jeffers approach to these teens is actually very warm and he brings to the front their personal identity, their unique spirits and characteristics. I think this individuality goes back to what I mentioned above. Having your ‘self’ within the ‘all’ – being able to be independently different than your peers based on who you are as a person. I think these photographs give these teens the chance to do that within the walls of their schools and their daily school protocols.

Aqui-La, 11, Elizabeth Pemberton Primary School Image by ©Kacey Jeffers

Junice, 11, St. James Primary School Image by ©Kacey Jeffers

In his home of Nevis, Jeffers created a sort of index of uniforms. How each school might have different approaches to this idea of uniforms, their colors, styles and philosophy. These uniforms become subcultures within the same geographical location creating a distinct style that represents each group of teens and their school. I think it is interesting as an index of our current time through these teens and their uniforms. Photography, in my opinion, is always a time capsule of this moment. Life was different 10-20 years ago – we looked and acted differently than we do now, and we will look and act differently in another 10-20 years from now. This book is a catalog of what these teens looked like, what they represented and the time, how they carried themselves, how they acted, dressed or behaved.

I think another big part of the work is Jeffers request that the teens chosen to be photographed by the schools are the ones that are not always in the spotlight. I think this is such an amazing choice, not only for these teens and how this would affect their life and confidence, but for us as viewers, it really allows us to see the world without it being so curated as we are accustomed to. I think it allowed Jeffers to really see himself within these teens. As he was not that long ago just like them, having the chance to now photograph them in such an effortless (seemingly) beauty, is captivating and makes the work so raw and genuine.

Please consider grabbing a copy of this book, you will not be disappointed, and it will be a wonderful addition to your library.

Chassidy, 15, Charlestown Secondary School Image by ©Kacey Jeffers

Aniya, 10, Joycelyn Liburd Primary School Image by ©Kacey Jeffers