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Notting Hill Soundsystems 2 (last copy)

by Brian David Stevens

Photographs: Brian David Stevens

Publisher: Café Royal Books

36 pages

Year: 2017

Comments: Softcover, edition of 350. 14 x 20 cm

In the summer of 2004, Brian David Stevens rose early to capture the towering speaker rigs and sound systems of the Notting Hill Carnival before the crowds arrived. The sound systems, these towering monuments to volume, stay in place for three days, are portrayed starkly and simply in his photos, a far cry from the colourful, loud and crowded images that normally depict the carnival.

Brian says he wanted to shift the emphasis to the source of the music that was drawing people there in the first place, and yet was drowned out in the visual noise. “Normally you never see these streets empty, they’re absolutely packed with people,” he says. “I got down there very early as they were setting up and shot the huge, monolithic speakers just in the middle of the street, where they look fantastically beautiful — I think every street corner should have one on them.”

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