Pride Not Profit

My fourth volume in the Café Royal Books series of publications came out a few days ago, with the title ‘Pride Not Profit London 1993–2000‘. You can page through it on the web site.

The cover picture, taken in 1997 and shown above, has Sisters Dominatrix and Ophelia Balls of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence and is printed across both front and rear, with the title filling the rather empty space at top right. I was pleased to find this image which I think makes a good cover; images I’ve taken with a suitable space at top right are remarkable rare.

I began photographing Pride in 1993, rather late in the day but at a time when my interests in photography were moving from the urban fabric towards a more direct approach to people and social issues. Pride then was very much still a protest rather than the corporate funded spectacle it has now become, but the times were clearly changing, and seven years later, in 2000 some of those on the march were carrying signs reading ‘Pride Not Profit‘, providing the title for this small collection of photographs, most of which appeared in a larger selection shown as a part of a Museum of London travelling show, ‘Queer Is Here‘ in 2006. You can see that larger group of images on-line.

Designing a book like this always means making compromises, and it was impossible to include all of my favourite images, but I was pleased with the rhythm and flow I think I managed in this small sequence of 19 images. As usual you can page through the book on the Café Royal site, thopugh the images I think look rather better on the page. It isn’t perfect printing but I think it serves the subject matter well.

Pride has changed very much since I took these pictures, so much so that last year I couldn’t motivate myself sufficiently to photograph the actual parade, and in 2017 I only photographed the alternative parade that preceded the main event when protesters were refused permission to join it – in Anti-Racist & Migrant Rights reclaim Pride.

If you are quick you can take advantage of the current sale offer on Café Royal Books, £27 for ten books, though as it says “Books selected at random from currently in-print titles” I’m not sure you will get this one. But there are many on the current list that are worth having.

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My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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