Peterborough Museum has a 1980’s photography exhibition about Peterborough’s youth to kick off 2023.
New Town Youth 1985 is a documentary photographic exhibition, from Russell Boyce, that looks at “the challenges, hopes and aspiration of diverse youth groups who were growing up in Peterborough in 1985”.
Photographer Russell, who was only 23 at the time, spent a year completing the work for the exhibition.
Peterborough was a new town made to provide new housing and job opportunities and in 1985 it saw rapid expansion.
The community was awash with different cultures and trying to shape itself.
Russell wanted to record the experiences of young people in this time during International Youth Year. 
Part commissioned by the Peterborough Arts Council, he set off photographing youth clubs, school dance groups, a YTS worker, a youth unemployment centre, a home for the homeless young, the Peterborough Youth Trust scheme to help young offenders, the Asian Cultural Centre, The Goulistan Girls Group and cultural exchange gatherings among more.
Russell said: “Despite all the challenges young people were facing in 1985 it wasn’t all bad and I hope my pictures to show this.
“I wanted to capture the hope, drive and passion that young people channel into their lives as they find their place in society. This is as true today as it was in 1985.
"in 1985 Britain was struggling out of a deep recession in ‘Thatcher’s Britain’. Unemployment was 11 per cent and interest rates were more than 11 per cent.
“This generation of young people, myself included, had grown up in an age of uncertainty, one in five under 18 unemployed and homelessness on the rise.
“The concerns that young people had in 1985 all seem alarmingly familiar today.” 
The exhibition opens on January 21 at Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery where all the work has been exhibited together for the first time.
After completing the work, Russell went on to work for Reuters News agency as an award-winning news photographer.
He moved on to be picture editor, managing the Asia, Middle East and Africa regions for Reuters picture service.
He is now documenting the Lea Bridge Road that stretches between Waltham Forest and Hackney in London.
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