How photographer’s fish and chip shop display led to latest exhibition of 1980s youth culture in Peterborough

"I was fresh out of college when I moved to Peterborough,” photographer Russell Boyce, whose New Town Youth 1985 exhibition is currently on display at Peterborough Museum, said.

Russell started out as a painter at an art school in Hull, where he got his first taste of photography at a fish and chip shop.

"I was painting outside of Bob Carver’s fish and chip shop and a tutor called Daniel Meadows – a world-renowned documentary photographer – said to me: ‘why not take a camera down there and see what you get?’.

"I spent a few weeks learning the mechanics of photography, taking photos at the fish and chip shop, and after taking the pictures I thought it might be fun to have an exhibition inside the shop.

"I spent an afternoon wiping grease from off the walls and got the pictures laminated. I left a comments book there and received a lot of interaction.

"My favourite comment was one which said: ‘Great pics of people enjoying their day the Bob Carver way’. I was completely sold. I thought this is a great way to tell stories and get into people’s lives to really document what was going on in communities.

"From that moment I was hooked.”

Russell moved to Peterborough and began capturing the everyday lives of young people in the city at a youth club called The Friday Club, on Lincoln Road. It later turned out to be the first group youths he photographed as part of his New Town Youth 1985 exhibition – a collection capturing the challenges, hopes and aspirations of diverse youth groups, growing up in Peterborough in 1985, as the country struggled out of recession.

"I was invited to show people there how to use a camera to take pictures,” Russell said.

"I was given a grant by Peterborough Arts Council for £150, with £50 meant for materials. It wasn’t much, but I loved doing it and I went on to do other groups and it grew from there.

"I spent a whole year documenting youth groups. I was later invited to the Westgate Project, which was a centre for unemployed young people in Peterborough.”

Russell photographed Peterborough’s youth at a young people’s homeless centre and was part of a pilot scheme, set up by the Peterborough Youth Trust, teaching youngsters the art of photography as an alternative to custodial sentences for young people.

He also pictured Peterborough’s growing Asian community and theatre groups – who all “wanted their stories told”.

“When we started planning the New Town Youth 1985 exhibition 18 months ago the interest rates and inflation were low, but as we got closer to the exhibition the economy started to change,” he said, acknowledging the parallels between youth culture in the 1980s and today.

"Now the things which were relevant in 1985 – high interest rates, inflation and youth unemployment – are relevant today. It’s gone full circle – it’s really come home.

“The exhibition has been positively received and I’ve enjoyed hearing what people have been saying about it. The response has been terrific.”

The exhibition at Peterborough Museum is the first time Russell’s photographs have been shown together since they were taken since 1985.

"It has been wonderful for the museum to have the opportunity to display such a unique exhibition of photographs that document Peterborough's youth from the 1980s,” Glenys Wass, heritage collections and museum exhibition manager at Peterborough Museum, said.

"The images provide a snapshot of what everyday life was like for the people featured.

“The exhibition has been very well received by our visitors who have been fascinated by many of the photographs, which either brought back memories of where they were in the 1980's or been interested in the clothes and activities of the time.”

The exhibition will be on display until April 16 this year. Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, in Priestgate, is free to enter and open from 11am to 4pm from Tuesday to Saturday.