Derek Ridgers, a photographer in the right place at the right time, managed to capture the women at the heart of 1970s punk culture.

Ridgers , who captured the early movement as Debbie Harry and co. ripped through the capital at clubs like Hammersmith Odeon, The Vortex and The Music Machine in Camden, has collected his images into his book Punk London 1977.

“Sometimes the pogoing was so fervent that I had no choice but to pogo along too for fear of being subsumed,” the British photographer said of the book.

“Most people blinked and missed it,” the book’s synopsis reads. “Many spent a decade trying to catch up. Derek Ridgers stumbled across it by accident, where it was, in the beating filthy heart of the Roxy in middle of a derelict slum called Covent Garden. Stumbling through the moshpits trying to keep hold of a borrowed camera.”

“Currents and vibes, flows and backwash, trends and anti-trends splashing around in the cauldron of youth culture in the city of London, and the lost rebels haunting their suburban bedrooms – jumping the train uptown to get into the legendary Roxy.”

The book is on sale here and a sample of the images are available below:

(All images Punk London 1977)