Pedlars, Poseurs and Performers: My Portobello Road

Pedlars, Poseurs and Performers is a compelling insight into the world of the Portobello Street market. Fifty years of photographs, which go beyond the stalls, shops and cafés normally associated with it. Each picture features, where possible, the subject’s name and the date the picture was taken. Some of the characters shared their stories with Brian Jaquest while being photographed in his studio. The non-conformist approach to the layout of the book represents the chaotic experience of a street market. The photographs and texts describe each category in the book’s title: pedlars, poseurs and performers. This book is not only a visual record of the characters who have made the Portobello Street market famous over generations but is also a collection of fascinating photographs taken from the point of view of an insider. Pedlars, Poseurs and Performers is an in-depth photographic history which takes the reader into the ticking heart of the Portobello Road.

Brian Jaquest started his photographic career in the 1960s as a tea boy and messenger for a busy London studio. He was given the opportunity to work in the darkroom and eventually assisted one of the photographers. Finally he was allocated his own space and clients, shooting fashion both in the studio and on location. After a few years’ experience he went freelance, sharing a space in Hampstead. Then in 1970 he moved into his own studio in Portobello Road, West London and has lived and worked there ever since, mostly on commissions for advertising agencies as a still-life photographer.