ok, so you might be wondering why the hell have I been looking at pictures of the Notting Hill Carnival in July? It’s a good question. It is not because I have a time machine and zipped four weeks into the future so I could document an event ahead of time so it fitted in better with my schedule..but holy shit, how amazing would that be? No, the truth is slightly more basic. These shots were actually taken in 2022 but I took a major dive right after which lasted for about a year and a half (yes, that’s a big dive) and so I was never able to go thru the shots and share them. Until now. I looked at them recently and it seemed such a shame to not at least get some of em out in the world so here they are. The way I see it is, if you capture a wonderful moment, but then no-one sees that moment, was there any point in capturing it in the first place? I would argue possibly not.
The modern way is to get photos out as soon as is humanely possible following an event. If it takes you more than a week or so to get them out you might as well not bother. Everyone has already moved on. Most documentation in this era is shared in real time, in situ, almost instantaneously. Laters is just too late. I don’t take photographs on my phone so this is not option is not available to me but even if it was I wouldn’t do it. Why would I waste time sharing my experience with other humans who aren’t even present when I could instead be fully present? Yes I am still looking down a lens but I am in totally in the moment. It makes sense to me to process and post photos in your down time but younger generations would undoubtedly not agree.
I couldn’t attend last year’s Carnival because I still wasn’t in a good way but since then have been climbing the mountain of recovery (not quite at top yet but I can see the summit) and have my sights firmly set on Carnival 24. It felt weird to miss a year and so will be glad to be back in the thick of this magnificent event and returning to my usual position to document the Disya Jeneration sound system and its crowd in all its glory, which I have been doing since 2007. But as I will be taking my usual summer sabbatical and not posting in August you might have to wait a little while to see the photos. But is that such a terrible thing? Does immediacy always win? I think photography takes a while to distill, like a good wine (not that i know shit about wine). It needs time to ferment and needs distance from the present before it’s full impact can be felt.
So I wish you all a lovely rest of summer and I will be back in September…
