Saturday 9 June 2012

Sat 9th June: Derek Ridgers Selected Works at Dover Street Market







Following on from yesterday's feature on a brand new street-style annual to one from the past................Derek Ridgers came to prominence as a photographer capturing the club kids of London's vibrant scene in the 1980's which was latterly coined "New Romantic" when the movement became mainstream.  Whilst snapping the young Boy George and Spandau Ballet,  he happened across a group of Skinheads who asked for him  to turn the camera on to them.  This was the start of a relationship that led to travelling with the crew on coastal gatherings and collating an extensive and crucial catalogue of the subculture.  From developing his personable portrait skills and establishing a name in the industry, Derek has since carved a career in taking iconic shots of musicians and actors of the last few decades.  To coincide with the current nostalgia for punk surrounding the Jubilee, Dover Street Market have put on an exhibition of Derek's prints from his seminal Skin Head era and partnered with Bunney to produce a newspaper momento.  My ears prick up at anything of this ilk , so as soon as I found out about it I waded through the rain to make it down on the opening day to snaffle one of the papers and also look at the other related books pooled together by Idea Books (including a Brue Webber's The Andy Book).  Their theme is called "When We Were Young" after Ridger's famously scarce book of the Blitz straight-ups which I would love to find and have a flick thru one day to see the unsung heroes of the clique whom Derek immortalised via this record.  
Get down to Dover Street Market to pick up a free copy of the paper for yourself and also see the current window installation by Hillman Studio which I will be blogging in due course.......... the exhibition will run till 21st June............. more info here.

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