A gallery’s latest exhibition will serve as a who’s who of Deal’s well known personalities or most frequently spotted faces.

Aptly named Another Real Deal, it is a continuation of photographer Liz Mott’s 2010 project The Real Deal where she captured these characters on her camera.

The 2018-19 archive boasts 84 black and white portraits in what she describes as “a celebration of a town and its people.”

Visitors to Linden Hall Studio will see the faces of old and young, relative newcomers and those who were born and grew up here.

Ms Mott says: “Together they make this the vibrant place it is: Real Deal.”

The project has its roots in 2007 when photographer Harold Chapman of the Parisian Beat Hotel fame asked to see her work.

“Harold was a near neighbour of mine. It was he and a couple of other new friends who persuaded me to begin the process of photographing the wonderful variety of people who live in and around the town.

“The project was called Real Deal. Inevitably this was just a snapshot of a cross-section of people, and as a newcomer I relied on people I met and photographed to suggest other people.”

Real Deal 2010 was exhibited at the newly renovated Astor Community Theatre in April 2010 with a book of sepia portraits to go with it.

Over the years many of these have been exhibited at smaller venues in the town.

There is a CD of that first set of portraits lodged at the Deal Maritime and Local History Museum along with a couple of framed images and a copy of the book.

She added: “It was always the plan to revisit the project, but it took a further seven years to get it together.

“So Another Real Deal began.There were so many more people on the list this time but it wasn’t possible to do more as there are few places where they can all be exhibited together.”

Again a hardback coffee table book accompanies the exhibition.

This will be available at the Linden Hall Studio.

Wanting to connect this new set of images with the portraits exhibited in 2010, they have been included in the new book in the form of an enlarged contact sheet, so there are 162 portraits in all.

The inaugural exhibition is at the Linden Hall Studio in St George’s Road, Deal and runs from Tuesday, February 5 until Saturday, February 23, 10am to 4pm Tuesdays to Saturdays.

It then returns to where it all began in April 2010, the Astor Theatre, where it can be visited during March and April.

After that it will be split into smaller groupings to be shown at a number of bars and restaurants in the town.

There will be a questions and answers evening at Linden Hall, where Liz Mott will be interviewed by a former Real Deal muse, writer Francis Fyfield.

It is on Friday, February 22 at 6.30 for 7pm. Tickets £5.

The book costs £25 and is available at Linden Hall Studio, Roper’s in Deal High Street and the East Kent Mercury office, 13 Queen Street, Deal. More outlets are coming forward. It’s also available at the Q&A evening.

Details of forthcoming exhibitions can be found on Liz’s website lizmottphotography.co.uk