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DEREK RIDGERS When We Were Young

Over a period of ten years, from 1978 to 1987, British photographer Derek Ridgers painstakingly recorded the young inhabitants of London's streets and Soho's fashionable club scene. His resulting portraits of skinheads and the extravagant and exotic figures of the post-punk, New Romantic era are a remarkable and fragile social document, a record of an incredibly inventive yet excessive youth culture. Many of Ridgers's young subjects, such as Boy George,  Marilyn,  Steve Strange,  Martin Degville  and Leigh Bowery, went on to achieve fame and wider notoriety, but here they exist together in a self-regarding but vulnerable sub-culture, wan angels of the London night. This book brings together Ridgers's extraordinary photographs for the first time. Part photography monograph, part fashion history, part momento mori, this beautiful book also encapsulates the essence of Ridgers's work and his influential role as quiet observer and collector of British street style. Published to accompany the exhibition of the same name at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. AMAZON.CO.UK PHOTOWORKS