Derek Ridgers has been taking pictures of UK youth culture since punk and has a massive collection of simple portraits of various sub cultures. Skinheads, new romantics, punks, club kids and mods have all fallen under his lens.
With the blanding out of contemporary culture these images now have a rawness that reminds us of a time when youth culture actually meant something.
The costumed characters that inhabit his work have, underneath their tattoos piercings, a touching ordinariness. These aren’t just disaffected attention seekers they’re young people trying to make their way in the world.
Like an August Sander portrait these images are of their time and all the more powerful for it.
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