Clicking Comedians - Steve Best's favourite photos

This August, if you find yourself in the Pleasance Dome, have a look on the walls. There you'll see a photographic exhibition.

Clicking Comedians showcases the work of comedian and photographer Steve Best. He's been given the walls to display some of his finest and most popular photographs to date.

Best's many years on the comedy circuit means he is known and trusted by hundreds of comedians, and this unique relationship has enabled him to gain exclusive access to the 'behind the scenes' world of the comedy business.

His interest in photography started when, one day, backstage at a gig, he took a "blurry photo" of Ross Noble on his mobile phone. Since that image, Steve has moved from mobile phones to high end FujiFilm X Series cameras, and has taken thousands of photos of comedians - both frontstage and backstage. This has let to him publishing two books - Comedy Snapshot and Joker Face - with a third now in the works. It's some of the photos from this new book - which is set to be titled Comedians Back to Front - that you can see if you visit the Pleasance Dome this festival.

We asked Steve to select four of his favourite photos, and tell us a little more about them...

The Laugh

With Marlon Davis, Matt Welcome, Imran Yusuf and Andrew Bird.

Best says: "This is such a joyful picture. The photograph was taken backstage at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London, for a charity gig. Someone told a slightly off colour joke, then they each kept topping the line."

On Off

Steve comments: "This picture says it all. Joe Rowntree was compering and was waiting to go on, Michael Fabbri had finished his set, stretched out and relaxed."

Frankie Boyle

Steve describes this one as follows: "Frankie Boyle at the Hammersmith Apollo. Again I shot this backstage and caught the spotlight shining a star through his glasses. Although you can't see Frankie's face you know it's him."

Mike Gunn

Steve explains: "The one that is often chosen from the exhibition as the punter's favourite is of Mike Gunn at the Hammersmith Apollo when he was supporting Lee Mack. I shot this backstage through the side curtains and, although there are 3500 people or so in the audience, there is a loneliness exuding from the photo - just one person and a microphone onstage doing their jokes.

Clicking Comedians will be on the walls of the Pleasance Dome and Café from the 1st to 27th August. It's totally free - just enter the venue and have a walk around.

You can find out more about Steve Best's work, and buy his photography books, at stevebest.com