Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
To see the full Notting Hill Carnival gallery please click here
There were two things at this year’s Carnival that have significantly increased on previous years and that is the mass indulgence of balloons (nitrous oxide) and selfies. It seemed everywhere you looked someone was doing a balloon or a selfie and on some occasions, as in the instance above, both at the same time. I was going to name them ‘belfies’ but that’s already been taken (bottom shots apparently) so I think I will have to go with “ballofies”. (yes I am slightly trying to make #ballofies happen)
It is quite staggering how much both activities have increased in the last year alone but especially selfies. As I looked back through the crowd shots I had taken there was barely a single picture where someone wasn’t taking a selfie of themselves or their group, often repeatedly. I then looked back at the crowd shots from just last year’s Carnival and it was markedly less which just shows how its presence in our lives is spreading.
There was a time, not that long ago, when it would have been considered really naff, narcissistic and very uncool to stand there and take multiple shots of yourself. Why it is no longer considered so I really do not know. Its out of hand. Its happening way way too much. It needs to stop.
As for the balloons. their use is also slightly out of hand. Its only being done because its legal and even though its mostly harmless it can actually kill you as it works by pushing all the oxygen out of your lungs which apparently you need to breathe which apparently is quite useful for staying alive. This means it is technically more dangerous than most of the illegal recreational drugs the youth are being “protected” from.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Well, actually the same news. BBC future just published an article yesterday about people’s obsession with taking their own picture and commissioned several of my photographs to accompany it. Here it is if you want to see: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150901-are-you-taking-too-many-pictures