FEATURING PHOTOGRAHER WAYNE CRICHLOW

This week, The Photowalk explores the story of Notting Hill Carnival through the people who have lived it, photographed it and helped shape it over the decades. My lead guest is photographer Wayne Crichlow, co-author with Wayne Campbell of Carnival of Resistance, a remarkable new book documenting Carnival through the eyes of those who know it best. Along the way, our conversation takes some unexpected turns. We meet London documentary photographer Sam Shervington, whose grandmother, Barbara, was there during Carnival's formative years, and Wilf Walker OBE, a music promoter whose story spans from the early days of Notting Hill Carnival to the fields of Glastonbury.

Also today, we talk of Charlie Phillips, whose camera created one of the most important visual records of London's Caribbean community. We look back at the Mangrove Nine, discover the traditions behind J'ouvert and Jab Jab, and meet some of the people whose lives have become woven into the history of Carnival itself.

And if you'd like to hear more from Charlie Phillips, this week's edition of The Extra Mile features a revisited conversation with one of Britain's most important documentary photographers.

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Join us in Venice for the Venice ‘26 retreat, photographing a city built on water, light, and ritual as winter settles across the lagoon. Together we’ll wander through early-morning markets, quiet canal edges, hidden monasteries, and the weathered backstreets of Castello and Cannaregio, with time to slow down, take photographs, and build creative confidence in a city that reveals itself gently when the crowds disappear. Places limited.

The Mangrove Nine were a group of Black activists arrested after protesting against repeated police raids on the Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill in 1970. Their trial became a landmark moment in British legal history, with the judge acknowledging evidence of racial prejudice within the Metropolitan Police. Today, the case is recognised as a turning point in the fight for racial equality in Britain.

Extinction Rebellion, often shortened to XR, is an international environmental movement founded in the UK in 2018. It's known for using peaceful civil disobedience to draw attention to climate change and biodiversity loss, with protests often taking place in prominent public spaces. Wayne Crichlow has documented several of these demonstrations as part of his long-term record of protest and public life in London.

Grace is mentioned within the show today, an independent trader in Notting Hill. See her Instagram.

Long before Glastonbury became a global music festival, it was finding its identity as a small event with strong links to campaigning and activism. From 1981, it was officially known as the Glastonbury CND Festival, raising funds for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Michael Eavis later said that CND's support and nationwide mailing list helped transform the festival at a time when its future was far from certain. Acts during those early years included Taj Mahal, Aswad and New Order.

Misan Harriman is a British-Nigerian photographer, filmmaker and social activist whose work ranges from intimate portraits to major moments in recent history. He became the first Black man to photograph the cover of British Vogue and is widely recognised for his powerful images of the Black Lives Matter movement. Although he only picked up a camera in his forties, he's become one of the most influential visual storytellers working today.

Charlie Phillips is a Jamaican-born British documentary photographer whose work has become an important record of London's post-war history. Arriving in Britain as part of the Windrush generation, he spent decades photographing everyday life in the capital, particularly within London's Caribbean community. His images of Notting Hill, its people and the early years of Carnival are now recognised as an invaluable part of Britain's photographic and social history.

Ernest Cole was a South African photographer whose camera exposed the everyday reality of apartheid to the world. His 1967 book House of Bondage documented the effects of racial segregation with extraordinary honesty, forcing many people outside South Africa to confront life under the apartheid system for the first time. Forced into exile, he continued photographing internationally, and today his work is regarded as one of the most important documentary records of the twentieth century.

THE BISCUIT TIN QUESTION: WHICH PHOTOGRAPHER WOULD YOU CHOOSE FROM THE PAST OR NOW, TO MAKE YOUR PORTRAIT? SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO: stories@photowalk.show

MUSIC LINKS: YAAHZZYWAAH wrote today's playout song Manifest It. Music on the show is sourced primarily from Artlist and also features in Michael Brennan’s Spotify playlist GoFoto. For Apple Music users, follow this playlist.

Kelvin Brown’s flickr Photowalk inspired group - join by invite by clicking on to THIS LINK.