Documentary Photography • Youth Culture • Identity • Great Yarmouth • 1980s–ongoing
Debby Besford is a British documentary photographer and educator based in Norfolk. Born in Great Yarmouth, she studied photography at Norwich School of Art, where documentary photographer Nick Hedges was one of her tutors. She later completed an MA in Photography at London College of Communication. Her work examines identity, belonging, leisure and the relationships people form through shared cultures and interests.
While studying at Norwich School of Art, Besford photographed the Great Yarmouth Scooter Rally over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend in May 1987. Later known as The Scooter Reunion, the work documents scooter boys, scooter girls, mods, skins and psychobillys gathering in her home town as part of Britain’s national scooter rally circuit.
Besford has continued to develop self-initiated documentary projects alongside commissioned work and teaching. Later bodies of work include The Art of Roller Skating, developed over five years with young artistic roller skaters in Great Yarmouth, and Inside the Burlesque Boudoir, photographed in Brighton and London between 2005 and 2007.
British Culture Archive represents selected photographs from The Scooter Reunion for image licensing and publishes selected works from the series through the BCA Editions programme.