PRESS RELEASE
Photofusion welcomes 'Celebration as Resistance: A Conversation with Wolfgang Suschitzky'
Join us in celebrating the vibrancy and resistance of Carnival through image, sound, and collective memory.
'Celebration as Resistance' presents the first public display of photo transparencies taken by Austrian-British photographer Wolfgang Suschitzky during his 1960 and 1964 travels to Trinidad and Tobago. Suschitzky visited the island nation as Head of Photography for Carnival Fantastique (1960), directed by his friend Edric Connor, a Trinidadian performer living in London. During these visits, Suschitzky captured Carnival in colour-an exception within his largely black-and-white photographic career.
These images show participants adorned in ornate, handmade costumes, moving freely in expressions of pride, play, satire, and presence. They depict Carnival two years before and after Trinidad and Tobago's independence from Great Britain, capturing a celebration at a moment of profound political, cultural, and social shift. In tracing these scenes, the exhibition highlights how narratives of liberation, memory, and joy travel and transform across time and place.
Far beyond the Caribbean, Carnival continues to flourish through the Notting Hill Carnival in London, where it stands as a celebration of music, community, and a long history of resistance. In dialogue with Suschitzky's work, contemporary photographs by Funmi Akingbe, Gabrielle Drew, and Hark1karan depict today's Carnival diaspora. Their images move through preparation, crescendo, gathering, and rest - capturing both the expansive energy and intimate textures of Carnival as lived experience.
And yet, in 2025, questions of survival linger. After facing safety and funding uncertainties that nearly halted its return, Notting Hill Carnival stands as both a triumph and a fragile reminder. How long can spaces of collective joy persist within systems that repeatedly threaten their existence?
Alongside the photographic works, archival ephemera from Suschitzky's life offers insight into his process and relationships. The exhibition also features the continuous screening of Mas Resistance (2023), directed by Alex Urquhart and produced by Valentina Kuplinova. The film incorporates spoken word, video, music, and performance to honour and archive the practice of Mas - the tradition of storytelling through costume - a practice now at risk of fading.
'Celebration as Resistance' understands Carnival not simply as festivity, but as a form of memory, resilience, and collective becoming. It is a celebration of survival.
Exhibition Dates & Details
14 November - 15 November, 2025
Venue: Photofusion, Brixton
2, 2 Beehive Pl, London SW9 7QR
Free and open to the public.
