Sonic Editions

Derek Ridgers is an English photographer known for his assemblage of music, film and club/street culture photography with a long line of subjects including the likes of Blur, Beastie Boys, Snoop Dog, Run D.M.C, Nick Cave, Debbie Harry and so many more.

Born in Chiswick, west London, Derek Ridgers trained as a graphic artist at Ealing School of Art between 1967 and 1971, where one of his fellow students was Freddie Mercury. Following art school, Ridgers went into advertising, where he worked as an art director for ten years. One of his clients was a camera company and he picked up the product and gave it a try. When he parted with the agency he decided to take up photography. The emergence of punk rock in the late 1970s fascinated Ridgers.

As well as photographing a wide range of musicians, actors, writers and athletes during his long tenure as a cover/features photographer at Loaded, Ridgers established his own page of club photographs called 'Getting Away With It', which would run for fifteen years until 2010, one of the longest running features in the magazine's history. Loaded also gave Ridgers his own page, "The Derek Ridgers Interview", in which he told behind-the-scenes stories from his past photo shoots.

We're very proud to have a selection of his work on Sonic Editions and we hope you enjoy this gallery as much as we do!