Chris Killip, 1946-2020

Lachlan Young · Oct 14, 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/artandd...rapher-of-britains-working-class-dies-aged-74

His iconic 70's-80's work is quite extraordinary in its visual and emotional impact, with a discomfiting simultaneous sense of both reality and unreality coming from his incredibly fluent use of handheld 4x5 in some very challenging environments - his work very much defines the questions around the borderlines of where reportage and art sit - and whether those arbitrary definitions matter at all.

Arthurwg · Oct 14, 2020

Very sad. Very sad also that mass media outlets for this kind of reportage have all but dried up. We need this kind of truth rather than the internet. LY is correct when he says this work sits on the borderlines of art. There's an actual sensibility at work here.

logan2z · Oct 14, 2020

Terrible news. Somewhat ironically, I just bought In Flagrante Two a couple of weeks ago, my first book by Killip. It's beautifully printed by Steidl, I highly recommend it.

Lachlan Young · Oct 14, 2020

Arthurwg said:
Very sad. Very sad also that mass media outlets for this kind of reportage have all but dried up. We need this kind of truth rather than the internet. LY is correct when he says this work sits on the borderlines of art. There's an actual sensibility at work here.

My own feeling is that Killip set out to make what he perceived as art with an element of documentary (and art is never apolitical), but it became as much reportage by the nature of the contexts in which it was made. Nor does 'In Flagrante' sit in the (inherently contradictory) category of 'straight' documentary - it seems much more concerned with being truthful about Killip's feelings & experiences in the places he made images in than every image being exactly representative.

blockend · Oct 15, 2020

An interesting photographer whose work bridged Sander, Arbus and Ray-Jones stylistically. RIP.

AgX · Oct 15, 2020

Three weeks ago the German Photographic Society awarded the Erich Salomon Prize 2020 for outstanding application of photography in journalism to Chris Killip.

The actual awarding did not even take place yet.

blockend · Jan 14, 2021

Skinningrove - YouTube
A moving series of images about the iron and fishing community of Skinningrove, by Chris Killip.

Sofa Sessions: Conversations with Martin Parr - Chris Killip - YouTube
An interview with Chris shortly before his death.

Alex Benjamin · Mar 29, 2023

For those who already admire Killip's work, as well as those who'd like to become better acquainted with it, here's some new, interesting stuff:

Two articles on the Magnum website:

Chris Killip's Enduring Connection With the People he Photographed | Magnum Photos Magnum Photos

In the second of her two-part profile of the life and work of Chris Killip, whose images are now represented by Magnum, Diane Smyth focuses on the late photographer’s intimate connection with his subjects.

www.magnumphotos.com

"History is what’s written, my pictures are what happened" | Magnum Photos Magnum Photos

Diane Smyth speaks to former friends and colleagues of Chris Killip, whose estate is now represented by Magnum Photos, as a retrospective goes on show at The Photographers' Gallery in London, accompanied by a major new monograph published by Thames & Hudson.

www.magnumphotos.com

And a great conversation between Martin Parr and Ken Grant on Chris Killip. I don't think there's anything quite as illuminating as two photographers talking about another they greatly admire.

Of course, the new Chris Killip: 1946-2020 book edited by Ken Grant and published by Thames & Hudson should be on everyone's bookshelf.

Richard Man · Mar 30, 2023

Dang, didn't realize he passed. Always enjoy his work.

reddesert · Aug 5, 2024

This past week I visited the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, where I was fortunate to see a galley of Chris Killip's work called "The Last Ships," exhibiting a selection of his work from the mid-late 1970s at the Tyneside shipyard and the neighborhoods just beside it, showing the last giant tankers under construction right beside modest workers' houses, and a few years later as the neighborhood had begun to be demolished.

A few years before he passed, Chris Killip donated these photographs to the Laing in honor of the shipyard workers, and I believe the exhibition has now been made permanent, in a single-room large blackout gallery on the first floor of the Laing (that's the second floor for USanians). It is beautifully installed with a respect these photographs and their subject deserve. There's a description and brief video interview with Killip here: https://laingartgallery.org.uk/whats-on/chris-killip-the-last-ships
I highly recommend any photography appreciator to have a look if in the area.

Chris Killip, 1946-2020

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