When I Was A Photographer - Two Girls In A Bath

Having lived all of my adult life in West and Northwest London, the Notting Hill Carnival has always been a part of me, so much so that in the last thirty or so years I can remember missing only one or two.

If you are ever in London around the last bank holiday in August then you must treat yourself to the spectacle that is the Carnival.

Oddly enough I never look forward to the Carnival, simply because it marks the end of the summer, and often the weather is beautiful, however literally the very next day, it turns bad.

This isn't always the case, but the point is, I don't like looking forward to the end of summer!

In recent years there have been rumblings about moving the Carnival from the streets of Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove, into Hyde Park, thus killing what is the biggest street festival in Europe, and second only in the world to the Rio Carnival.

I don't believe this will happen, but you never know, so get into it while you can!

Fall Away Friday

This picture is one that I managed to get into a local art exhibition in Ladbroke Grove, which is fitting as it was taken the Saturday before Carnival. The curator actually named this Fall Away Friday, at the time I was a little annoyed because I just left it untitled, however though the name eventually grew on me.

People often mistakenly believe that Carnival starts on the Saturday, so there is usually a buzz on that night and various parties popping off, representing people getting a bit too excited before all the proper fun begins.

The reason I love this photo is that it reminds me of one such night, and makes me smile every time I remember.

The Party

The Grand Union Canal, which is one of the longest canals in Europe, stretching from Camden Town in London, all the way up to Birmingham. The particular stretch I am talking about passes through Ladbroke Grove right by the popular supermarket Sainsbury's.

Why this is significant is that for around five or six years there were parties held along that stretch of the canal that became to be known as, the Sainsbury's parties.

They were usually quite messy affairs, full of people hungry for a carnival rave up going on well into the small hours of the morning.

The picture above was taken after one of these such parties and has a funny little story behind it.

Back At The Flat

As was often the case a bunch of us ended up back at a friend's house who lived right on the edge of the carnival. In fact it was the girl on the left and her boyfriend's flat.

Probably around ten or fifteen of us had piled back there, deciding that we might get a few hours sleep before unleashing ourselves onto the streets of Ladbroke Grove for the two day festival of fun.

Soon after getting back to the apartment, we noticed that there was a guy there who nobody seemed to know. It was one of those situations whereby everyone was thinking that someone else knew him, but nobody did!

This usually wouldn't have been a problem, however this guy started getting ruder and ruder. From being really horrible about a friend of mine's art, to just spreading a generally unpleasant vibe.

The rest of us were feeling very mellow and happy and so didn't really want to confront this guy, as he wasn't being violent or anything, just rude and horrible.

So we did the first thing that came to mind, which was to one by one go into the bathroom!

Let me tell you this bathroom was tiny, and was designed to hold no more than about two people comfortably, however we managed to squeeze around ten in there.

As the bathroom filled up there was less and less space until something had to give. The two girls you see in the picture just fell into the bath, with the one on the right in black, managing, quite impressively, to hold onto her mug of wine!

Back in those days I pretty much always had my camera on me, so I somehow angled myself so that I could take the picture.

There was a skylight in the bathroom letting in the dawn light, and even then I was struck by how beautiful it was.

Aftermath

I can't remember how long it took me to develop the roll of film I shot this on, but I do remember I was so pleasantly surprised at the quality of the picture.

Unfortunately the original print is too big for my scanner, so this was one of the test prints that wasn't quite right, however it still captures that lovely moment that will forever make me smile.

Paper - gloss, pre-flashed (cream)
highlights - silver, blue.
Size - 16 x 10

Models - Philly (left) & Aoifa (pronounced Ee-fa)

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Cryptogee