Chris Killip (11th July 1946 – 13th October 2020)

British documentary photographer Chris Killip left behind a fantastic archive of documentary photography

“The working class get it in the neck basically, they’re the bottom of the pile. I wanted to record people’s lives because I valued them. I wanted them to be remembered. If you take a photograph of someone they are immortalised, they’re there forever. For me that was important, that you’re acknowledging people’s lives, and also contextualising people’s lives.”
– Chris Killip

 

Cookie in the Snow, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumberland, 1984 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

 

British documentary photographer Chris Killip (11th July 1946 – 13th October 2020) gave us the vision for his documentary photography: “History is what’s written, my pictures are what happened.” In Flagrante (1973-1985) focused on the lot of working-class communities living with the aftershock of deindustrialisation. Martin Parr  considers In Flagrante “the key photobook about Britain since the war… It was a different way of looking. Put simply, Chris created a new narrative by looking more closely at his subjects and what they represented.”

 

Crabs and people, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, 1981

Crabs and people, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, 1981

True love wall, Gateshead, 1975

True love wall, Gateshead, 1975

Youth on a wall, Jarrow, Tyneside, 1976 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Youth on a wall, Jarrow, Tyneside, 1976 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

 

Sometimes, if I’ve been taking a portrait, I say, “Could you just hold still a moment?” But usually I don’t say anything. You know, it’s more interesting just looking, and seeing something and trying to photograph it. But you’re always thinking, you know; you’re working at your composition, thinking how to make this more interesting.

I worry about the digital camera. I tell my students to turn off the screen, and they don’t. They think I’m crazy. I’m not crazy. I know what made my pictures better was the anxiety I had, because I didn’t know what I’d just taken. I couldn’t see it, and I always thought it wasn’t good enough, so I’d push a bit harder. I’d try to make a better picture.

– Chris Killip, 2017

 

Sunday afternoon, Whitley Bay, Tyneside, 1977 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Sunday afternoon, Whitley Bay, Tyneside, 1977 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Mr. Johnny Moore, Ballalonna, Isle of Man, 1971 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Mr. Johnny Moore, Ballalonna, Isle of Man, 1971 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Sprouts on allotment, Dunston, Gateshead, 1977 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Sprouts on allotment, Dunston, Gateshead, 1977 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebration, North Shields, Tyneside 1977 (via The Tate)

There is an image from 1977 called Celebrating the Queen’s Silver Jubilee: I like the picture very much. But I can remember processing and printing it, looking at the contact and thinking: “Oh, my God, I can’t show this.” There’s a very old lady who has been made up for the occasion by her friends: they’ve powdered her face but they’ve been rather overzealous, and the flash has hit her overpowdered face, and, as my cousin would say, “She looks like they dug her up.” I remember thinking at the time: I can’t show anybody this image, it’s just too strange. Now I don’t think that. The picture is such a supercharged Martin Parr-ish image, with the Union Jack in the background and people smiling, and the words The Queen’s Silver Jubilee right there.

– Chis Killip

 

Torso, Pelaw, Gateshead, 1978 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Torso, Pelaw, Gateshead, 1978 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Royal Wedding Celebration, North Shields, Tyneside, 1981 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Royal Wedding Celebration, North Shields, Tyneside, 1981 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Supermarket display, North Shields, Tyneside, 1981 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Supermarket display, North Shields, Tyneside, 1981 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Simon being taken to sea for the first time since his father drowned, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, 1983 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Simon being taken to sea for the first time since his father drowned, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, 1983 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Angelic Upstarts concert, Sunderland, Wearside, 1984 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Angelic Upstarts concert, Sunderland, Wearside, 1984 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Brian at the disputed fence, Lynemouth, Northumberland, 1984 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Brian at the disputed fence, Lynemouth, Northumberland, 1984 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Helen and her hula-hoop, Lynemouth, Northumberland, 1984 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Helen and her hula-hoop, Lynemouth, Northumberland, 1984 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

Lead Image: Cookie in the Snow, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumberland, 1984 Photograph- Photograph by Chris Killip

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