Words and Interview by Jesse Serwer, Photos by Pogus Caesar—
St. Kitts-born Pogus Caesar has captured the heartbeat of the Caribbean community in the U.K.—and particularly in his hometown of Birmingham, England’s “second city”— for over three decades. While his work as a television producer (for the BBC and Channel 4, among others), documentary filmmaker and photographer has brought him around the world to cover a wide range of topics, of particular note are his many photographs of artists and entertainers in unguarded moments. Many of these photos were collected in a gallery show, Muzik Kinda Sweet, since shown at London’s 02 and adapted into a book of the same name. A subsequent gallery show, Reggae Kinda Sweet, has honed in on his images of reggae acts and musicians from Dennis Brown to the Mighty Diamonds..
LargeUp spoke with Caesar about his city and his many subjects, from Lee “Scratch” Perry to Stevie Wonder to Guyana-born British actress Carmen Munroe and a bus-riding glue sniffer in Birmingham. Click here to go to Page 2 and read our interview with Pogus, then here to start scrolling through a gallery of his photos, with commentary from the photographer.