The glory years of the Cannes Film Festival are captured in a new photo book

The first time press and street photographer Derek Ridgers went to Cannes for the film festival was for NME in 1984. There to shoot DJ and rapper Afrika Bambaataa, he was taken aback by the circus that surrounds the annual event, and by the crowds of photographers, fans and starlets that swamped the Croisette (or promenade – see things to do in Cannes).

As he returned many times between 1984 and 1996, Ridgers’ distinctive photo-documentary style captured everything from the other photographers to candids of stars such as Clint Eastwood and the greats like Helmut Newton at work. ‘I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the whole thing hugely photogenic,’ says Ridgers.

Now, the results are to be published by Idea in a limited-edition book, Cannes (£25 from ideanow.online). To mark the occasion, Ridgers tells us what he loved most about the Cannes glory years.

Derek Ridgers on Cannes

Wallpaper*: What did you enjoy about Cannes in this period?

Derek Ridgers: The sunshine, the beach, the film stars, the girls, the passionate intensity of the crowd. Lots of photographers. Lots of pushing and shoving. And limitless photographic opportunities almost everywhere you look. It was just so hectic and full on, a really fun time.

W*: Tell us a bit about your naturalistic style and how you work.

DR: My preference is always to try to work with one camera and one lens. I have to carry a back-up – it would be unprofessional not to – but I want there to be very little between me and my subject. I want my focus to be on what’s happening around me rather than my equipment and what’s in my camera bag. My usual style is to spend 98 per cent [of the time] just watching and waiting and only 2 per cent taking photographs. I never like to explain too much about what I’m doing whilst I’m doing it. I’m naturally polite and softly spoken and I suppose my portraiture reflects that approach.

W*: What was the criteria for inclusion in this book?

DR: I wanted to show the crazy circus that is the Cannes Film Festival. Everything that always seems to be going on all at once. Most of my best photographs of Cannes were always of the interactions between the photographers and the girls on the beach. But there were always lots of other things going on as well – film stars arriving, film stars leaving, film stars posing on the Carlton pier or on the Croisette.

Fashion shoots, porn-star photo calls, beach parties, nightclubs, film-company parties that go on all night. For a photographer, it was a full-on 15-hour day.

W*: What are some of your favourite photographs in the book?

DR: Sylvester Stallone: spontaneously standing on a chair surrounded by what looks like half of France. Because that one picture seems to sum up all the wonderful madness of Cannes.

Lennox Lewis: because it was taken at a really exclusive, private party on the top floor of the Carlton Hotel – that I’d successfully gatecrashed. He was the undisputed World Heavyweight Boxing Champion at the time and was a really charming and friendly bloke.

Marissa Malibu: the mischievous look on her face together with the faces of the men around her. And all their attention is on her bottom.

The two photographs of Connie: with a friend pouring water over her chest on Carlton Beach. It’s such an obvious sexual metaphor and staged (I assume) just for the benefit of my lens.

Cannes by Derek Ridgers, £25, is released on 15 May 2025, ideanow.online/cannes