John Goto Lovers' Rock

Lovers' Rock is a series of portraits created in Lewisham, South London in 1977. At the time, John Goto taught evening classes in photography and film for two years at Lewisham Youth Centre, where this series was taken. Since then, the negatives have lain dormant in his studio.The unselfconscious engagement of the subjects in front of the camera can be, in part, explained by their familiarity with the photographer, who was not much older than the sitters.The series is entitled Lovers' Rock after a musical sub-genre that grew out of the South London reggae scene in the mid-1970s. In 1975, the singer Louisa Mark cut the first Lovers' Rock hit with Caught You in a Lie.