Music
6 photographers reflect on their favourite Notting Hill Carnival shots
Carnival photographers past and present tell the story behind some of their favourite captures.
Notting Hill Carnival is a London institution – take a trip there on August Bank Holiday and you're bound to experience some of the best sights, sounds and smells that London has to offer. In honour of Notting Hill Carnival turning 50, the good people at Youth Club Archive celebrated its golden anniversary with Jump Up! – an exhibition supported by Arts Council England collecting photography, art and other Carnival ephemera, held in West London in September 2018.
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To celebrate, Red Bull Music asked six of the photographers exhibiting to talk us through their favourite shots.
Crowd dancing at Disya Jeneration soundsystem, 2017
© Babycakes Romero
"The longer you’re part of the neighbourhood, the more intertwined you become with this event"
Babycakes Romero: I have been documenting Notting Hill Carnival for the last 10 years, but have been going for the last 25 years and have only missed one in that time. I have been in the area since the mid ‘90s and the longer you’re part of the neighbourhood, the more intertwined you become with this event. It is such a special and positive experience, to be with so many people who all just want to dance and party together.
This shot was taken in 2017, and is a shot of the crowd at the Disya Jeneration sound system on Powis Terrace, which I have been documenting for the last decade. My aim with this shot, like all my photographs, is to show that 99.9 percent of people are there just to have a good time and to dance and enjoy themselves. My work is geared to counteract the largely negative portrayal of Carnival in the mainstream media. They only ever focus on any trouble which is conducted by such a miniscule fraction of the attendees, and it is no way reflective, or an accurate portrayal, of the event. By showing it as it actually is hopefully people will understand it better.
There is just so much going on inside this photo. Catching all the different faces in various states of jubilation, as they rock out to the tunes blasting out of the sound system, gives you a good gauge of what it’s like at Carnival.
Instagram @babycakesromero
Women in Carnival dress, 2017
© Francis Augusto
"It illustrates one of the foundations of the Carnival – families coming together"
Francis Augusto: This is my first year photographing at Carnival. I’ve either been away on holiday or just not gone as a photographer, so it was pretty interesting! I’m drawn by the food, music, good vibes and good people. The simplicity of this is what I’m all about as a human.
This shot was taken while I was in a group of eight or nine. We were making our way to the carnival via Latimer Station. I had just been speaking to a policeman about where the toilet is. I start moving away and, in the corner of my eye, I see these two walking towards me and loved the colours. The mother had a wonderful smile and energy about her. I asked them if it would be OK to take a photo. I took the snap, smiled, said thank you and we went on our separate ways. For me it illustrates one of the foundations of the Carnival – families coming together.”
Instagram @franxisaugusto
Chef cooking jerk chicken, 2017
© Stefy Pocket
"You just smell jerk in the air!"
Stefy Pocket: Notting Hill Carnival is one of the best things about being a Londoner. It’s a special time of the year, a celebration of West Indian culture that unifies all the city’s communities in a massive street party. I’ve been covering Carnival for the last five years, enjoying the actual experience of partying with the crowd while photographing my favourite characters from the bunch. This photo was taken at Carnival in 2017. A man cooking up jerk chicken on a grill. Apparently five tonnes of jerk chicken are cooked every year during the Notting Hill Carnival – basically you just smell jerk in the air!
Instagram @stefypocket
Men dancing on Tavistock Crescent, 1990
© Giles Moberly
"There's movement, attitude, a good flow"
Giles Moberly: I photographed Notting Hill Carnival for 20 years, between 1990 and 2010. The special thing about Carnival for me is the variety of people, the colour, the food – and a lot of attractive women dancing. This picture was taken in 1990 down Tavistock Crescent. A group of men were dancing, a big tune kicked in, I got down low and shot four pictures in quick succession. The men seemed happy to be photographed. It all happened very quickly, then you move on. I like this picture because there's movement, attitude, a good flow, with all the faces looking in your direction. It works.
Setting up a soundsystem, Notting Hill Carnival, 1983
© Peter Anderson
"I love this image of anticipation and patience"
Peter Anderson: The photo of the Java Sound System is from 1983. I really loved the sound at the Carnival, so loved and still love this image of the anticipation and patience for the sound system as it’s calmly put together. This was shot with an Olympus 0M1 35mm camera.
Drummers in Notting Hill, 1989
© Matthew Smith
"A unique cast of people just doing their own thing in their own neighbourhood"
Matthew Smith: My first visit to Notting Hill was when I was a teenager back in 1985. I went to the pub one weekend in Somerset and a friend who lived in a squat in Ladbroke Crescent working as a despatch rider was there. He suggested we leave and drive up to London to stay at his place, so we did – just jumped in the back of a pick-up truck and made the trip through the night. Listening to The Clash had fuelled our imagination about Notting Hill and, when they got into reggae, we followed them into the music and fell in love with it. The squat we stayed in was an amazing place, full of beautiful hippie girls and crazy personas like Gene October, from the punk band Chelsea. Carnival was a natural destination for us after discovering the area. Walking down Portobello on a Saturday morning and listening to the reggae coming from the sound systems on the street was a revelation. You just didn’t get that in the small West Country town where I grew up.
The first year I went to Carnival, I hadn’t yet discovered photography, but once I began to study it at art college, it was a natural choice of subject matter. In 1989 I went to photograph both Notting Hill Carnival and Mosside Carnival in Manchester for a degree show project. This shot was taken in 1989 in one of the side roads around Westbourne Grove, not far from the Mangrove centre if I recall correctly. I came across this group of drummers just jamming on the street and loved the impromptu nature of what I was witnessing, and the character of the people present. It’s a classic bit of street photography – observational, undirected, with an innate poetry, full of a unique cast of people just doing their own thing in their own neighbourhood.
Instagram @mattkosnaps
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