All sort of pictures in liquorice sideshow

Photographer and artist Richard Stanley pictured inside Pontefract museum with his exhibition of portraits taken during Pontefract's annual liquorice festival.
p311d446 — Photographer and artist Richard Stanley pictured inside Pontefract museum with his exhibition of portraits taken during Pontefract's annual liquorice festival. p311d446

Richard Stanley took a series of shots during the event last July and these have now been compiled into ‘The Portrait Sideshow With a Liquorice Twist’.

Mr Stanley, a National Portrait Gallery-collected photographer, was commissioned by Wakefield Council Museum Services to take pictures of faces in the crowd.

He put people at their ease and then got them to run through a variety of expressions. He used pouting and lighting techniques to achieve the desired effect: a lovely picture people would be really happy with.

Portrait maker Mr Stanley, 44, said: “The idea behind The Portrait Sideshow was to make the audience the stars of the show. It’s their 15 minutes of fame.”

He has had some really positive feedback from people whose images he captured at the festival.

Mr Stanley added: “I’ve had people saying, ‘that’s been the highlight of my day’. So come and see Pontefract faces.”

The exhibition at Pontefract Museum on Salter Row consists of 104 pictures of about 135 people.

The exhibition will now run until March but that’s not the end of the project.

Mr Stanley said: “We are going to box some pictures up and place them into the archives.

“The Portrait Sideshow will also be rolling into a new town to make the audience the stars of the show.”