Derek Ridgers

Derek Ridgers is a photographer whose sustained observation of British music, nightlife and street style forms an unusually rich record of changing subcultures. Trained as a graphic designer and employed in advertising before moving into photography, he documented punk and the many youth identities that followed it, working both in clubs and for publications including The Face and NME.

His direct portraits give their subjects visual agency while preserving details of clothing, grooming and affiliation that conventional celebrity photography can miss. Ridgers’ own archive documents exhibitions and publications devoted to skinheads, club culture and music scenes.