Pictures of the week: Band Riders, by Henry Hargreaves

Outrageous backstage requests – known as 'riders' – from rock stars are the stuff of legend and, by association, cliche: sliced white and Dom Perignon for Axl Rose, a tub of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter (among other things) for Billy Idol and, most famously, Van Halen’s M&Ms with the brown ones taken out.→
Photograph: Henry Hargreaves/Barcroft Media

Taking these dressing room demands as his inspiration, Henry Hargreaves, with stylist Caitlin Levin, has recreated them in the manner of Dutch still lifes – a high-brow aesthetic to depict low-rent requests, such as Busta Rhymes’ fried chicken, Guinness and condoms.→
Photograph: Henry Hargreaves/Barcroft Media

Today, female divas outdo the rock gods of yore for plain silliness. Mariah Carey – who else? – asks for Cristal champagne and bendy straws;→
Photograph: Henry Hargreaves/Barcroft Media

Lady Gaga – again, who else? – cubes of cheese on ice.
Photograph: Henry Hargreaves/Barcroft Media

Rihanna enjoys a sort of all-day brunch involving hard-boiled eggs, turkey bacon and turkey sausage 'at any time throughout the day'→
Photograph: Henry Hargreaves/Barcroft Media

Only Beyoncé strikes a refreshing note with her baked chicken, garlic, sea salt, black and cayenne peppers, and Pepsi.→
Photograph: Henry Hargreaves/Barcroft Media

Hargreaves has made something of a name for himself with eye-catching food projects. He staged and photographed prisoners’ last meals, and recently created celebrities’ faces in mosaics made from toast burned with a kitchen blowtorch. 'Food is a cheap material to work with,' he says, matter-of-factly.→
Photograph: Henry Hargreaves/Barcroft Media

Riders are usually so daft, they are beyond parody. It would actually be braver for a rock legend or R&B goddess to order something sensible, such as a pot of tea and some sandwiches.→
Photograph: Henry Hargreaves/Barcroft Media

It would take someone so secure in their status at the top of the tree that they don’t need to display diva-ish behaviour. Ozzy Osbourne, say, whose backstage meal comprises fruit, water, assorted teas, bagels and steamed fish. Mind you, this was probably after his bat-head-biting days.
Photograph: Henry Hargreaves/Barcroft Media