CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/25/2014

Derek Ridgers: 78-87 London Youth

In his introduction to Derek Ridgers: 78-87 London Youth, artist and director John Maybury writes, "While self-invented/imposed celebrity was/is nothing new, (the dandy, the flâneur, the aesthete) these predominantly working/middle class kids were constructing personae from the debris of a Ballardian no man's land born out of the Situationist yell of punk and Thatcher's neo-fascist groove. At that time everyone was on stage and ready for their close up. Like all photographers of reportage, in some sense Ridgers was invisible hiding behind the lens at the Roxy or Taboo. He silently stalked these stomping grounds, a hunter seeking out its prey. Ridgers' portraits of young boys and girls are weighted with a raw poetry and beauty, while somehow remaining both candid and unforgiving. Time spent in another world is never wasted." Ridgers will sign copies of the book, from which "Scarlett & Jeffrey at the Alternative Miss World, Earls Court" (1981) is reproduced, Wednesday, March 26 at Dashwood Books.