A photographer has taken a look back into the past with a new book featuring the best of the Pride Festival

PHOTOGRAPHER JJ Waller has released a new book that shows some never before seen photos from the Brighton Pride Festival.

The book, entitled JJ Waller’s Brighton Pride, is out now and can be purchased from book shops across the city.

JJ has filled the pages of the book with fascinating photos of Pride events past and present and says he was inspired to put the collection together after last year’s hugely-successful festival.

He said: “When I went to the Britney Spears concert in Preston Park last year it was the first time I’d been back to photograph there since it became a paid event, so I hadn’t been for a while.

“I got the pictures from that day and thought that I had such an interesting collection of pictures from the last decade.

“I went through my archive and put together a series of images that told a story about the passion of Pride and how successful it has become.

“I’m capturing the spirit of what Pride is meant to be.

“Some people think it’s got too big, but some think it’s great that it’s got so big.

“I’ve added lots of comments in the book to tell both sides of that story.

“I think it’s good that it’s got so big but now is a good time to take stock.”

He added that his collection of Pride photos is so vast that it would be difficult to tell what year a lot of the photos were from, “unless you see shops in the background”.