Skinheads 1979 - 1984

Description

"In early '79 I was already engaged in what eventually turned out to be a lengthy photographic study of the New Romantics (though back then they were not known as such). I'd been documenting this nascent scene in the Soho nightclub 'Billy's' and, one evening, a group of about half-a-dozen skinheads turned up. They saw me taking photographs and one of them, a guy called Wally, asked me if I'd like to take some photos of them too. They seemed pretty friendly and not at all camera shy. I took a few snaps, we got talking and Wally suggested I go with the whole gang on one of their Bank Holiday jaunts to the seaside. That was what led, eventually, to five years of photographing skinheads. In those five years I got to know some of the skinheads quite well and liked many of them." Derek Ridgers All the photos were taken between 1979 - 1984 in either London or nearby coastal towns. Over 100 photos including 32 pages of colour.

Derek Ridgers is a well-known English photographer with a career spanning over thirty years. Most famous for his work in the field of music, film and club/street culture - photographing everyone from James Brown to The Spice Girls, from Clint Eastwood. He has also compiled an almost unrivalled image archive during three decades of visually chronicling famous and sometimes influential British social scenes such as skinhead, fetish, club, punk and the New Romantics.