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Photographer Debbie Todd strives for inclusivity with portraits

Debbie Todd Debbie ToddDebbie Todd
Debbie Todd uses her photography to celebrate people and their stories

At the age of 38, Debbie Todd decided to dust off her camera and enrol for a degree in photography. Four years later, she is preparing her first book having won one award and been shortlisted for another for her work capturing and celebrating people's differences.

Most people are taken aback when Debbie first asks if she can take their picture, the 42-year-old says.

"They say 'but I'm not a model', but my reply is 'what is a model? Everyone is a model."

Debbie's work celebrates people's unique qualities, be it a disability, an unusual style or a different attitude.

"I want people to feel more confident and not alone if they have differences," the photographer from between Stanley and Consett, County Durham, says, adding: "I would love the world to become more inclusive. You hardly ever see anyone with differences in fashion shows or adverts."

Debbie has photographed about 40 people so far and has more subjects in the pipeline. She finds people via social media or simply out on the street.

Debbie Todd A selection of photos in old fashioned ornate gold frames on a wood-panel effect wallDebbie Todd
Debbie Todd likes to celebrate people's differences

Of those she approaches, "99.9%" are happy to pose for her, she says, albeit often with bemusement at having been singled out for a portrait.

Having left school with three GCSEs (C grades in English language, literature and media studies), Debbie flitted between jobs and raising her family before finally deciding to properly study photography, a hobby she had always enjoyed although she had not practised it for some years.

She enrolled in a Bachelors degree at the Northern School of Art in Hartlepool, which ended this summer with her winning the school's photography award and making the final of the Association of Photographers Student Awards 2022. She is now preparing to begin a Masters degree.

Her most recent project was all about the people who caught her eye, and is now working on a book celebrating her subjects.

Here are just some of those she photographed.

Debbie Todd A young woman with purple and green hair and wearing a white dress plays with butterflies superimposed around herDebbie Todd
'Butterflies on your stomach' features Chloe-Anne who has multiple sclerosis
Debbie Todd A dog has a human hand in his mouthDebbie Todd
Debbie has also photographed animals such as Rex, a rescue dog who is the subject 'Bite the hand that feeds you'
Debbie Todd A man holds a tiger teddy bearDebbie Todd
'Can't hear yourself think' is a portrait of a man called Euan who has autism
Debbie Todd A woman with no hair appears as if to be asleep surrounded by flowersDebbie Todd
Hannah, who has Hay-Wells syndrome, is the subject of 'Keep your hair on'
Debbie Todd A woman with dwarfism has a bored expression on her face as she stands in a box marked fragileDebbie Todd
'Good things come in small packages' features Holly, who has dwarfism
Debbie Todd Two women wearing matching grey shirts stand back to back while holding a pair of scissorsDebbie Todd
South African sisters Sarah-Jane and Amanda-Lea posed for the picture 'Cut from the same cloth'
Debbie Todd A blonde teenage girl with no hands holds several artificial hands between her armsDebbie Todd
'Keep your hands to yourself' features Tilly who contracted meningitis as a baby
Debbie Todd A woman with only partial fingers looks off to the distanceDebbie Todd
Sadie, who had sepsis, features in the picture 'Keep your fingers crossed'
Debbie Todd A man holds a false eye in on hand and holds a magnifying glass up to the empty socketDebbie Todd
'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' features Lewis, who has a prosthetic eye
Debbie Todd A man with a condition affecting the stricture of his face poses with a skullDebbie Todd
Jono, who has Treacher-Collins syndrome, is the subject of 'A face only a mother could love'

Debbie's book, The Meaning of Being Different, is due to be published on 28 August and can be found on Kickstarter.