IN THE EIGHTIES Portraits from another time

Derek Ridgers

Hardback 160 pages

It was the best of times it was the worst of times.

Maligned, misunderstood and fetishized the 1980’s stands as the decade when post-modern life began in the west, and London was at the epicenter of this shift.
An explosion of creativity took place against a backdrop of radical social change. No longer would the state look after you from cradle to grave – now it was every man for himself, greed is good and the markets are the hand of god.

London became a city of tribes. The vast youth culture categories of the preceding decades shattered into shards. It was the decade that sub-culture as a way of life reached it’s zenith before giving way to it’s inevitable scene surfing conclusion.
Ridgers documented this cultural moment obsessively. Punks, post-punks, cyber-punks, gothic punks, mods, hard mods, Trojan skins, racist skins, ska, reggae, dub, early electronica, synth pop, acid house, happy hardcore, Blitz Kids, New Romantics, Hip-Hop, Rap, Electro, Break Beat, Techno, Rave – these were all sub-cultural spaces with scenes attached in London in the 1980’s.