Every year the town of Pickering in North Yorkshire turns back the clock to October 1943 and has a commemorative war weekend when the whole town dresses up in 1940s clothes. The shops are covered with bomb blast tape, sandbags are piled up and the town centre is closed off to modern vehicles – only vintage restored vehicles are allowed to park up. The overall effect is so good that you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped back in time or that you were on a film set as you walk among soldiers, RAF airmen and US military personnel as well as civilians in period costumes – ladies with fur trims and nylon stockings with seams up the back, spivvies in pin-striped suits, land girls, children with gas masks – it’s all there.
For me it provides a great photo opportunity to shoot both candid and formal portraits giving me some great images for the competition archives. Here’s a few from today but the event runs all weekend although other photo shoots have prevented my attending the rest of the weekend which is a real shame as the Saturday is a great day out and is the day when the big parade takes place. Get up there this weekend if you can, you won’t be disappointed!
