I want to do a newspaper, Bunney said. We were sitting in the Albion Cafe on Redchurch, drinking coffee. It was about 11 in the evening. I fancy doing something special to go with the new jewellery collection, he said. I've been speaking to Derek Ridgers about his photography - he's agreed to be involved. How would you like to interview him?
Bunney had me at newspaper. Loaded with a history that becomes more meaningful as we rely less and less on it as a medium, there's something magical about newsprint and bespoke newspapers. The work of Derek Ridgers is perfect for this. He takes classical portraiture - traditionally the reserve of the Establishment and trains his lens on members of the anti-establishment.
These are non-judgemental, unapologetic images in many ways informed by the kind of documentary photography usually found in newspapers.Three decades after they were taken and they still resonate. A rough, often violent and subversive world, the images reveal a definition of street culture which is the total opposite to how we understand the term today.
Interviewing Ridgers a few days later, it occurred to me that as street style becomes increasingly mediated and consumer-based, these images themselves are becoming more and more meaningful - just like the paper they're printed on.
