Exhibition, The Photographers Gallery London, 7th October 2022 – 19th February 2023
Chris Killip, Retrospective
Header image: Youth on Wall, Jarrow, Tyneside 1975
© Chris Killip Photography Trust, all images courtesy Martin Parr Foundation
Chris Killip was born on the Isle of Man but was best known for his monochrome documentary photography of the people of Tyneside. Amongst numerous subject matters, his depiction of young people and culture captured moments in time that almost smell of nostalgia. A sad loss to the photography world, Killip died in 2020, leaving behind a huge collection of poignant images.
Bever, Skinningrove, N Yorkshire 1983
© Chris Killip Photography Trust, all images courtesy Martin Parr Foundation
Currently underway at The Photographers Gallery, a celebration of some of his work is on display until February next year. Details from their website below.
‘Chris Killip’s continued efforts to value and document the lives of those affected by the economic shifts in the North of England, throughout the 1970s and 80s, have made him one of the most influential figures of British Photography.
This retrospective exhibition of more than 140 works serves as the most comprehensive survey of the photographer’s work to date and includes previously unseen works.
Left: Father and son watching a parade, West End of Newcastle 1980
Right: The Station, Gateshead 1985
Both © Chris Killip Photography Trust, all images courtesy Martin Parr Foundation
His sustained immersion into the communities he photographed remains without parallel. Whilst marking a moment of deindustrialisation, Killip’s stark yet tender observation moves beyond the urgency to record such circumstances, to affirm the value of lives he grew close to – lives that, as he once described ‘had history done to them’, who felt history’s malicious disregard and yet, like the photographer himself, refused to yield or look away.
Against a background of shipbuilding and coal mining, he witnessed the togetherness of communities and the industries that sustained them and stayed long enough to see their loss’.
Chris Killip, retrospective is co-curated by Tracy Marshall Grant and Ken Grant. Exhibition supported by the Isle of Man Arts Council and Culture Vannin.
Helen and her Hula-hoop, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumbria 1984
© Chris Killip Photography Trust, all images courtesy Martin Parr Foundation
Information and images above are from The Photographers Gallery website where you can find further details; we always recommend checking the site for any updates before visiting.
The Photographers Gallery, 16 – 18 Ramillies Street, London W1F 7LW – please check the website for opening times, admission prices and other events.
3rd November 2022
Breaking Glass Magazine 