On Saturday 19 October 2024, French photographer and author Riton launches Angels with Dirty Faces, a photobook of key figures in the punk, Oi! and hardcore scenes that was seven years in the making. Sarah McCauley talks to him about the project and why he is launching it at Oi Oi The Shop.

Hey Riton, it's great to catch up with you again. We first met you when you visited our store last summer with James Cruttwell (The Gonads), Lee Wilson (Infa-Riot), Steve Kent (The Business), your friend Anthony and Garry Bushell, who needs no introduction. You told us about the photobook that you have been working on. It was great meeting you that day and keeping in touch with you about how the work has been progressing.

I came to London last June to finally meet Garry with whom I had been in contact for several months about my book Angels with Dirty Faces. I explained the project to him and I hoped that he would write the preface for the English version, which he has done and helped so much more too.

I told him that I was looking for former members of some bands in order to photograph them during my next visit to London. Garry contacted a few people, some were able to travel and wanted to participate in my project. Lee Wilson and Steve Kent were two of them. Unfortunately Steve Whale was not available that weekend, so I returned in December to meet and photograph him.

I already knew James, we had met twice before, at concerts of our mutual friends the Dropkick Murphys in Paris along with Terry Hayes from East End Badoes. 

We all arranged to meet in your store, which seemed to me to be a rallying point for everyone. After photographing and enjoying one or two good pints of beer with the guys, I returned to your store to talk to you in more detail about my book. You were immediately won over by it and you reached out to me to help me promote it at home and in the United Kingdom.

It was a great day and a real pleasure to meet you.

 Self-portrait, Riton

One of our regular French customers Jhy told me that he knows you for years and that you always have your camera with you at gigs. Have you been documenting the French music scene for long and when did you move into portrait photography?

I started taking photos in concerts at the beginning of the 90s at some venues in Paris, notably the very first appearance by Agnostic Front. In London during the same period it was during concerts by Straw Dogs, Another's Man's Poison, Resistance 77, Klasse Kriminale and also at the The Seaside Special festival in Margate in 1992.

I actually moved to portrait photography at the beginning of 2017 with this project, Angels with Dirty Faces. From memory, no book had paid homage to the different scenes that are punk, Oi! and hardcore, by photographing the main artists past or present. There are many books with live concert photos but not of individuals in portrait form. I still continue to take photos at gigs, which I think will lead to a future photobook which will be called The Fury and Rarities.

Jake Kolatis, The Casualties

In your teens you published a fanzine Skinhead Pour l’Eternite and later a production and distribution label, S.P.E. Records. For this new photobook you have documented key figures in the scenes you mentioned. Are these the genres of music that you grew up listening to and which your early creative output focused on too?

When my fanzine was first published in October 86, I was only 15 years old. I edited this fanzine for five years with 11 issues in total. Meanwhile in 1988 I created my own production and distribution label. There were around 10 vinyl releases, with acts such as the Skinkorps, Plastic Gangsters, Close Shave, Section 5, Warrior Kids, Tolbiac and the EP compilation They are Skinheads For Eternity with some of the aforementioned bands, Bleach Boys and my band West Side Boys.

Through Angels with Dirty Faces, I wanted in a certain way to also pay homage to the groups that I listened to and which enlivened me during all these years, the majority of which I still listen to.

I started listening to punk shortly before the end of the 70s, on vinyl that my brother shared with me. One of my friends gave me Oi! The Album for my 12th birthday in 1983, thus opening up the Oi! music scene to me. In the mid-80s, we also started to listen to hardcore, the trend that was coming to France.

Through the links that I had forged over the years with my fanzine and my label, certain group members have become friends over the years, even like brothers. The words friendship, fraternity and loyalty are dear to me, still taking on their full meaning today.

James Lynch, Dropkick Murphys

Sham 69’s Angels with Dirty Faces single from 1978 provided inspiration as the title for the book. Tell us why.

The choice of title was very obvious. Angels with Dirty Faces, Sham 69’s essential anthem, is also the common denominator of these scenes and the reflection of these artists and their audiences. Most of them are marked by life, the street, excesses of all kinds, tattoos and so on. In other words, most of them have faces that as Jimmy Pursey sang of so well: “Trying to be someone in life. We’re the people you don’t wanna know. We come from places you don’t wanna go.”

You included some of the new generation of bands. Was it important for you to feature them as well as the household faces of the scene?

Yes, it did seem important to me to include new generation. This book is not only a tribute to the older generations, those who wrote the foundations of these scenes. I also wanted this photobook to be international and above all intergenerational, to be a sort of relay between the old and new generations. The new generation is in the process of writing their own history and are on their way to becoming the underground legends of these scenes. It is a sort of passing of the torch. 

Evan Seinfeld, Biohazard

Did you know many of the people you photographed before you started the project? How difficult was it to arrange to shoot international bands? Did you meet with them when they played in Paris or was there a lot of travel involved during the project? If the latter, then it would have been an expensive project to finance.

I already knew quite a few people who I was thinking of photographing. Most of them agreed to participate in the project and some even helped, putting me in contact with other people I wanted to include in the book. This made my task easier.

For international and European groups, I had to wait for them to perform in Paris in order to limit the financial cost of the numerous trips that I would have had to undertake. Most of the photographs were taken in Paris, during artists’ visits to the capital, but also during festivals: StreetPunk XMas Party, Le Bal des Vauriens, Zikenstock, and also during Revolution Calling in Eindoven. Not forgetting my trips to London to photograph a few people. With more financial means I would have liked to photograph many other people, but unfortunately I am not rolling in gold.

That said, I would like to thank the various organisers who opened the doors of their concerts to me so that I could access the artists. Thanks again to them.

Being a graphic designer, did you design the layout of the entire book? This was a massive and personal project for you.

Indeed, I designed the entire layout of the book, as well as all the communication that was done around it. As a graphic designer, I knew from the start what I wanted to do in terms of layout, choice of typographies, colour codes, etc. I really designed and visualised the book in my head before I even started it. I have this ability to see what things are going to look like before I even realise them. Also, I couldn’t see myself entrusting this task to another person, a bit like you wouldn’t entrust your child to a stranger. This also added an additional burden on me but the end product is as I had imagined it.

Colin McFaull, Cock Sparrer

You are producing only 1,000 copies of the book and there is a lot of excitement around its release. Was it your intention at the outset to limit the number of copies available and why?

The decision on the number of editions was not my decision, but that of my publisher, Filo at Serious Publishing. I’ll let him answer you on that.

Filo: Serious Publishing is a non profit association. I work by myself to publish quality books but I can't afford the logistics and means to deal with more than 1,000, which is already huge to stock, ship and distribute. 

Finally, we are delighted to be working with you to host the international launch of the book. Why did you choose Oi Oi The Shop as the location?

Originally I wanted to distribute the book in your shop and possibly do a small exhibition of a few portraits.

But during our first meeting in June 2023 when I explained the project to you, the idea seemed obvious to me to have the official launch of the book in Camden, in London. The two main scenes represented in my book are punk and Oi! These scenes and the sound that accompany them come from England and not elsewhere. So we must know how to give back to Caesar what belongs to him.

The welcome and the enthusiasm that you showed me also meant a lot to me. I felt 300% like you did, that your store is the right location for the launch and we share the same passion for the project. Thank you very much for all your involvement and dedication Sarah and Bill.

Cheers Riton. We look forward to seeing you at the launch.

Angels with Dirty Faces is available for pre-order. Click here to reserve your copy.  Oi Oi The Shop is the exclusive stockist in the UK.

#oioitheshop  #riton  #seriouspublishing  #angelswithdirtyfaces