Ian Beesley (born 1954) is a British social documentary photographer who has focused on Northern England, particularly

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, since the late 1970s. He was course leader for the MA in photography at the University of Bolton. Beesley's work is held in the collections of the Science Museum Group and Smithsonian Institution. In 2012, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

Life and work

Beesley was born in Eccleshill,

. He studied at Bradford Art College and Bournemouth & Poole College of Art. Since the late 1970s, he has documented the changing social landscape of Northern England, particularly in Bradford. He photographed Salts Mill in Saltaire as it was closing down in 1986. He spent five years working on the series ''The Art of Clubbing'', about nightclub culture in the UK. He was course leader for the MA in photography at the University of Bolton in Greater Manchester.

Publications

Books

*''Where Sky & Water Meet''. Arts Council, 1982. *''Through the Mill''. NMPFTV, 1987. *''Victorian Bradford''. Ryburn, 1987. *''Now I can tell''. McMillan, 1990. *''Warwickshire Hatters''. Ryburn, 1988. *''Calderdale''. Ryburn, 1988. *''Victorian Manchester & Salford''. Ryburn, 1988. *''Leeds Architectural Heritage''. Ryburn, 1993. *''A Place of Work''. The Keeled University press, 1995. *''Claret & Amber''. Darkroom/NMPFTV, 2000. *''Building Sights''. Leeds City Council, 2001. *''The Power, the Pride, the Passion''. Darkroom, 2001. *''Orphans of the Fallout''. Darkroom, 2001. *''Heavy Metal''. Darkroom, 2002. *''The End of the Shed''. Darkroom, 2001. *''Meltdown Heads''. together productions, 2004. *''Shining Out''. Darkroom, 2006. *''The Leap''. Darkroom, 2010. *''The Drift''. NCME, 2011. *''T'Ales''. Carlsberg/DRP, 2011. *''Born in Bradford''. Incline, 2012. **Darkroom, 2014. With Ian McMillan. . *''The Book of damp''. Darkroom, 2014. Photographs by Beesley, poems by Ian McMillan. . *''A box full of cuckoos''. Darkroom, 2014. *''Magic Lantern Tales''. Darkroom, 2014. *''Taraxacum Officinale''. Darkroom, 2014. *''Grafters: Industrial Society in Image and Word''. Unified Theory of Everything, 2016. Curated by Beesley, poems by Ian McMillan. . *''Life''. London: Bluecoat, 2023. A retrospective.

Zines

*''Esholt Sewage works Bradford 1977–78.'' Southport: Café Royal, 2016. *''Through the Mill''. Southport: Café Royal, 2016. *''The Drift.'' Southport: Café Royal, 2016. *''Tetleys Brewery Leeds''. Southport: Café Royal, 2017.

Solo exhibitions

*A touring exhibition across Finland, organised by the National Museum of Labour History, 2003 *''Life'', Salts Mill, Saltaire, Bradford, 2022. A retrospective.

Collections

* Science Museum Group, London: 131 prints (as of 17 March 2023) * Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA: 5 prints (as of 17 March 2023)

Awards

*2012: Honorary Fellowship of the

, Bath

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beesley, Ian 1954 births Social documentary photographers 20th-century British photographers 21st-century British photographers Photographers from Yorkshire People from Bradford Living people Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society