Charlie Phillips (photographer)

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Ronald "Charlie" Phillips (born 1944) is a Jamaican-born restaurateur, photographer, and documenter of black London. He is now best known for his photographs of Notting Hill during the period of West Indian migration to London; however, his subject matter has also included film stars and student protests, with his photographs having appeared in Stern, Harper’s Bazaar, Life and Vogue and in Italian and Swiss journals.

Life and work

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Phillips spent his early childhood with his grandparents in St Mary. He joined his parents in London, England, on 17 August 1956 and the family lived among other West Indian immigrants in Notting Hill, at the time a poor area of the capital characterised by Rachmanism and racism.[1] Phillips began his photographic career when while still very young he was given a Kodak Brownie by a black American serviceman. He taught himself to use it and began to photograph life in Notting Hill.[2]

After joining the Merchant Navy for a while, Phillips travelled widely in Europe, to Sweden, Switzerland, France and Italy. Caught up in the protest movements of the late 1960s, he took photographs of the student riots in Paris and Rome. He worked as a freelance photographer for magazines and he had his first exhibition in Milan in 1972, portraying the lives of urban migrant workers.[1] Returning to London after several years, he lived "a bohemian life of squats and pop festivals".[2] During the 1980s, he took photographs documenting West Indian funerals at Kensal Green Cemetery.[3] In 1989 he moved to south London to run a restaurant in Wandsworth, Smokey Joe’s Diner, during which time he did not pursue his career as a photographer.

A revival of interest in his work came with it being featured an exhibition in the Tabernacle in Notting Hill in 1991, coinciding with the launch of his book of photographs, Notting Hill In the Sixties. Introduced by Mike Phillips, the book includes photographs of everyday life in the area, covering poor housing conditions, musical entertainment and political activism.

Notable works

Phillips' photo "Notting Hill Couple" appears on the cover of the CD London Is the Place for Me Vol.2: Calypso Kwela Highlife and Jazz from Young Black London.[4][5]

Appearances in film and television

Rootical, a film by Nike Hatzidimon about Phillips' life, won the Best First Film Award at the Portobello Film Festival in 2006.[6]

Phillips' life and work was covered in Neighbourhood Tales: Black And White, broadcast in October 2003, in the Channel Four Neighbourhood Tales slot.[7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Charlie Phillips page at Akehurst Creative Management.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Charlie Phillips biography, itzCaribbean.com.
  3. ↑ "A Black Funeral" by Charlie Phillips at the Museum of London's Postcodes Project.
  4. ↑ Dave Hucker, "Young, Gifted, British and Black", from The Beat, Vol. 24, No. 5, 2006.
  5. ↑ John L. Walters, "Can design for contemporary jazz, world and experimental music have a meaningful partnership with the musical content?", Eye magazine, 63, 2001.
  6. ↑ Portobello Film Festival Report, Counterculture 2006.
  7. ↑ Neighbourhood Tales: Black And White (2003) at the British Film Institute's Film and TV database.]
  • Phillips, Mike; Phillips, Charlie (1991). Notting Hill in the Sixties. London: Lawrence Wishart. ISBN 0-85315-751-0. 

External links

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