A visiting photographer who came to Sidmouth to capture images of the Folk Festival said it was ‘like striking photographic gold’.

Celebrated street photographer JJ Waller has been taking pictures of performers and visitors at all the festival venues, on the beach and around the town centre for the ‘Your Town My Town’ project. This will be a collection of photos, including many taken by local people, that illustrate the unique character of Sidmouth and its residents.

As part of the project JJ set up photoshoots with a large number of local groups and organisations including the Science Festival, the Radway Cinema, the River Sid Catchment Group, the WHAT (Wellbeing and Health Action Team), Cricket Club, Bowling Club, Manor Pavilion, Churches of Sidmouth, Gig Club, Plastic Warriors, Town Band, Town Council, The Sidmouth Collective, Patchers & Quilters, Sid Life at Cotmaton House, Sidmouth Town Junior Vikings girls football team, the Photographic Club, the Watersports Hub and Sidmouth School of Art.

He also gave a talk at the Manor Pavilion Theatre as part of the Folk Festival programme. In it he answered questions and talked about his work photographing other seaside towns, notably during the Covid pandemic.

JJ said: “It’s been a superb first ever visit to Sidmouth that certainly won’t be my last - a unique ‘can-do’ town full of ‘can-do’ people.

“I was massively impressed by the professionalism and scale of the Folk Festival; it was a great time to experience Sidmouth. For a photographer being here was like striking photographic gold.

“What really was the icing on the cake was the superb efforts my hosts Sidmouth School of Art made to introduce me to so many amazing community groups and organisations who invited me to make their portrait. I’m definitely going to return and show my pictures that I hope locals will enjoy as an original, colourful, quirky and affectionate portrayal of your dynamic, sometimes eccentric, ‘Small Quiet English Seaside Town.’”

Sidmouth School of Art’s Director of Development Louise Cole said: “Working with JJ has been a complete pleasure and full of fun as he spent many hours and walked approaching 50 miles during his stay, engaging with everyone with his easy conversational style, often directing people to make a tweak here and there to realise his vision for what will make an amazing photo.

“We are very excited to move into the next phase of the project, which will be to make a series of exhibitions including billboards, phone boxes and bus shelters to share the body of work created by JJ.”

There is now an open call for anyone, resident or visitor, to submit a photo taken during the Folk Festival to the Your Town My Town project. Photos should be submitted via the Sidmouth School of Art website by 5pm on Friday, August 23.

The Your Town My Town project is funded by Sidmouth Folk Festival and supported by Sidmouth School of Art, The Royal Glen Hotel and Cllr Stuart Hughes’s Locality Fund.

More information about it can be found on the Sidmouth School of Art website.