Photo ©Mark McEvoy
In 1987, the British Conservative Party trotted out their election manifesto, introducing a Community Charge (“Poll tax”) wherein citizens were required to pay the state for local government services. It was a desperate play to shift the tax burden onto the poor, and in direct contraction of the party’s 1979 manifesto, which abolished it in an effort to install Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister.
Photographer Mark McEvoy, then 20 years old, remembers, “Thatcher was re-elected for a third term but everyone I knew couldn’t wait for her to go. The introduction of the Poll tax was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It led to riots and social dissent, which eventually led to Thatcher’s resignation.” It was an ignoble end to the neoliberal regime that joyously signified a new era of optimism emerging across the nation that coincided with the arrival of Generation X.
That same year, McEvoy hit up Notting Hill Carnival, camera in hand, to photograph London’s legendary Black August street spectacular. Originally organized in 1959 by Trinidadian journalist and activist Claudia Jones following the Notting Hill Uprising of the previous year, Notting Hill Carnival slowly evolved into the largest annual celebration of the African diaspora on British soil. As the Windrush Generation made a way for Black immigrants from around the globe, Carnival has become the place they could come together as one.
From the first time McEvoy first heard Bob Marley and the Wailers, he began to follow the scene as it took root in London – one third of what photographer Armet Francis first called “The Black Triangle” of Africa, Jamaica, and the UK. With the explosion of reggae artists chanting down Babylon, the London scene took root and McEvoy began following local bands like Aswad, Steel Pulse, and UB40, as well as sound systems like Jah Shaka, Coxsone, and Channel One. “One of the many perks of growing up in London was the cultural diversity and exposure to incredible music, food, fashion and communities,” he says. “Notting Hill Carnival was an essential part of my late Summer, a weekend of music, dance, drink, smoke and food in late August definitely not to be missed. The celebratory atmosphere, vibrant colours, sounds and smells all lifted my spirit.”
Now McEvoy looks back at the era in the new book, Notting Hill Carnival 1987–1992 (Cafe Royal Books), published in advance of this year’s festivities, August 23-25, 2025. The photographs evoke memories of moving from sound system to sound system with a rum punch in hand, dancing to roots reggae, heavy dub, calypso, and soca as the procession of steel pan drummers rang out through the crowds. “I would go to carnival on Saturday and Sunday – the quieter days for processions and families,” McEvoy says. “Monday was my day for letting go and following the sound systems with camera on hand for those unexpected moments. People were open, friendly and accommodating when having their picture taken. They were in party mode, almost oblivious to anything but being moved by the music and good vibes.”
McEvoy came of age in West Hampstead, North London, during the last hurrah of the analogue era, though few knew it yet. Originally a classically trained violinist, he gravitated towards photography. “My father (a keen photographer himself) would give me his Olympus OM-1 loaded up with a roll of b&w film and set me free. I wandered the streets taking photos, exchanging smiles with the locals, embracing the unknown with a curious spirit. At the age of 19, with 70 rolls of film in my rucksack I travelled to India for three months. I was hooked and never looked back. The camera was a stepping-stone into new experiences and worlds that gave meaning and purpose to my life.”
Drawing inspiration from photographers including Don McCullin, William Klein. Weegee, and Diane Arbus, McEvoy adopted a documentary approach that is at once intuitive and visceral. “I’ve always been interested in capturing what lies below the surface, unnoticed and often ignored,” he says. “One of the many perks of growing up in London was the cultural diversity and exposure to incredible music, food, fashion and communities. The city was rough around the edges but seemed to have so much more character and charm – before gentrification and corporate takeover.”
McEvoy’s luminous photographs of Notting Hill Carnival at the turn of the 1990s recall a city of hope for a world free from the relentless Sturm und Drag of Thatcher’s regime. “I feel lucky to have grown up when I did,” McEvoy says. “Subcultures were authentic and fresh. It was as if anything was possible in the world of fashion, visual arts, music and theatre. There was a sense of innocence, contentment with the unknown, and a willingness to discover and let life take its own course. I am still a traditionalist, constantly looking for ways to recapture some of what was lost.”
Follow Miss Rosen on Twitter
