By Anne Fry
The Cannes Film Festival, that annual pilgrimage to the sun-drenched Côte d’Azur, has long been a crucible of cinematic ambition, celebrity spectacle, and a certain ineffable Gallic glamour. Yet, beneath the veneer of red-carpet perfection and carefully curated social media streams, a deeper, more unvarnished sentience has always pulsed – a raw, human drama played out against a backdrop of high stakes and higher hemlines. Photographer Derek Ridgers, renowned for his penetrating portraits of British subcultures, serendipitously stumbled into this world in 1984 and, over twelve subsequent visits, captured a Cannes that now feels like a distant, almost mythical era. Creativitys.UK will tell you about this pre-digital age of the festival, a time when its “fun, crazy and ludicrous” moments were immortalised not by fleeting phone snaps, but by the discerning eye of photographers like Ridgers, whose archive offers a compelling glimpse into the festival’s untamed soul, a vital piece of Cannes Film Festival history.
A Different Kind of Spectacle
Ridgers’ initial foray into Cannes was an assignment for NME to photograph Afrika Bambaataa, in town for the promotion of “Beat Street.” He admits, “I don’t think I’d ever really thought about Cannes, or the film festival, before I went.” This detachment, perhaps, allowed him a unique perspective. Unlike many of his peers fixated on the traditional red-carpet scrum, Ridgers, whose artistic curiosity was always piqued by “people doing what people do,” found richer narratives unfolding on the periphery – on the beaches, in the bustling Croisette, amidst the throng of aspiring starlets, established icons, and fellow image-makers. His newly published book, “Cannes” (IDEA), gathers some 80 images from this period, predominantly the 1980s and 90s, revealing a festival experienced largely without the ubiquitous lens of the smartphone. This was a time when celebrity photography Cannes was primarily the domain of professional photojournalists and the resulting images, disseminated via print media and television, shaped the public’s perception of the event.
The Allure of the Unposed
Despite the glamorous setting, Ridgers confesses to having seen only two films during his many visits. “If you’re on the French Riviera and the sun’s out, why would you choose to go to the cinema if you didn’t have to?” he reasons. This preference for the candid over the curated is evident in his work. He captured luminaries like Clint Eastwood, the legendary photographer Helmut Newton (pictured with a model, Jo, on Carlton Beach in 1988), and the iconoclastic director John Waters, often in unguarded moments. His lens also focused on the ecosystem surrounding the stars: the hopeful models, the up-and-coming actresses like Frankie Rayder (who graces the book’s cover in diamonds and fur amidst a casually dressed crowd), and even attendees of the Hot D’Or adult film industry awards, which ran concurrently with the main festival from 1992 to 2001. Ridgers notes that the presence of the porn stars “added a layer of craziness and made for some interesting photographic juxtapositions,” lightening the “awfully serious” mood of the main event. This exploration of behind the scenes Cannes offers a stark contrast to the polished imagery that dominates contemporary festival coverage.
Candid Moments, Questionable Gazes
The images in Ridgers’ “Cannes” are a testament to a less guarded era. Young women, from aspiring film stars to adult entertainers, feature prominently, “posing with friends or performing for the camera; showing off in an attempt to emulate Brigitte Bardot’s culture-shifting debut at the festival in 1953.” Ridgers, adopting the “gaze of a bystander,” recorded it all – the playful, the outrageous, and occasionally, the ethically dubious. One striking photograph captures another photographer taking an upskirting shot, a moment Ridgers describes as “shocking then, too, which was why I took the photograph. I was appalled by the unabashed brazenness of it.” This unflinching documentation, while unsettling, provides a crucial historical record of the Cannes paparazzi culture and the often-predatory dynamics at play, a far cry from the carefully managed Cannes red carpet fashion moments of today. His work serves as a powerful reminder of how societal norms and photographic ethics have evolved.
The Photographer’s Solitary Pursuit
Despite being surrounded by a throng of fellow photographers, Ridgers recalls a distinct lack of camaraderie. “The whole time I went to the festival, I don’t think I had one conversation with any of the other photographers,” he states. “They shouted at me occasionally, for getting in their way, but that’s hardly a conversation.” This admission underscores his singular focus and competitive drive, a dedication to capturing the fleeting moment, unencumbered by social niceties. The book concludes with a poignant image of photographers discussing one of his own pictures, oblivious to his presence – a fitting metaphor for his often solitary, observational approach. This dedication to documentary photography Cannes resulted in a body of work that feels both immediate and timeless.
An Era Before Digital Deluge
Ridgers himself acknowledges the frivolous and sometimes outrageous nature of many of his Cannes photographs, stating, “I’m serious about my work but this is not a particularly serious photobook.” Yet, its value lies precisely in its candid depiction of a “fun, crazy and at times, ludicrous” period. The images are a powerful reminder of a time before the omnipresent camera phone and the relentless cycle of social media, where moments were less self-consciously performed for an unseen digital audience. The French law of droit à l’image (right to one’s image) presents contemporary challenges for publishing such candid public photography, a stark contrast to the era Ridgers documented. His archive, therefore, is not just a collection of vintage Cannes photos; it is a cultural artefact, capturing the uninhibited energy and raw human interactions that defined a particular epoch of the world’s most famous film festival. It allows us to glimpse the evolution of Cannes Film Festival, from a relatively more freewheeling affair to the highly controlled, globally broadcast spectacle it is today.
Derek Ridgers’ “Cannes” offers a compelling counter-narrative to the often-sanitised image of the film festival. It is a window into a time when glamour mingled more freely with grit, when moments of unscripted absurdity were more readily captured, and when the human pageant, in all its flawed and fascinating glory, played out with an intensity less filtered, less mediated, and perhaps, ultimately, more real. His photographs invite us to reflect on how technology has reshaped not just how we document such events, but how we experience them, reminding us of the potent allure of the unposed and the enduring power of a photographer’s unique vision.
