Installation celebrating 60 years of Notting Hill Carnival opens at Outernet

A new immersive installation celebrating six decades of Notting Hill Carnival launches in London next week. Carnival 60: Ian Watts at Outernet collates the award winning photographer’s archive of snapshots from Notting Hill Carnival into an installation at public cultural space Outernet from Thursday 27th August to Wednesday 2nd September. 

Image credit: Ian Watts

A BAFTA and Grierson-winning photographer, Ian Watts first attended Notting Hill Carnival as a teenager in the summer of 1976 shortly after buying his first camera, and has documented the festival ever since. The free to visit installation, which will be displayed on the large, advanced Outernet screenings, opens with a montage of recent Carnival imagery before jumping back to the black and white photography of Watts’ first visits, spanning the ensuing decades.

Calling the Outernet installation “the culmination of a long photographic journey,” Watts added, “These photographs span generations of technology, but the people, energy, creativity and spirit of Carnival connect them all. For me, this is more than an exhibition of photographs. It is a record of a community, a culture and a changing London. It is a personal journey that began with a second-hand camera and has continued through many years of photography and filmmaking.”

Scott Neal, the Creative Director of Culture and Lifestyle at Outernet, said, “Ian’s Carnival story is itself amazing. The pictures that he has taken from being a young boy to today across six decades are a vibrant record of what Carnival is about and how important it is to the fabric of London. We are proud to be able to use his pictures to create this piece at Outernet and celebrate the 60th birthday of Notting Hill Carnival.” 

Carnival 60: Ian Watts at Outernet runs from Thursday 27th August to Wednesday 2nd September and is free to attend.

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Header image credit: Ian Watts