“My interest has always been people and, I suppose, a study of the human condition,” said Ridgers, who, alongside his professional assignments, spent much of the 1980s and the decade prior documenting London’s punks, skinheads and New Romantics. “The film festival was my first extended foray into reportage, but it’s still all people doing what people do,” he noted, reflecting on how his book “Cannes” was shaped by this same curiosity, in tandem with his rejection of the more traditional red carpet set-up.
“There’s so much of life’s rich pageant on show during Cannes, there are great photographic opportunities almost everywhere,” he continued. Shooting both in color and black and white, Ridgers captured icons such as Clint Eastwood, Helmut Newton and John Waters, as well as then-up and coming models like Frankie Rayder, who appears on the book’s cover dressed in diamonds and fur (the surrounding crowd adopting casual jeans and T-shirts), and performers attending the Hot D’Or adult film industry awards too, including the late Lolo Ferrari.
“During the years I was going, the film festival seemed to become a bigger and bigger deal,” shared Ridgers. “When the porn stars were having their awards show there as well (the Hot D’Or’s ran from 1992-2001), that added a layer of craziness and made for some interesting photographic juxtapositions. The main film festival seemed to take itself awfully serious, and having the porn stars there lightened the mood somewhat.”