influencers - Chris Killip
It's only recently that I discovered the work of Chris Killip, a man widely regarded as one of the most influential British photographers of his generation.
What draws me to Chris' work is not only the intimate connection he has formed with the people and environments he captures but also the personal resonance I find in many of his subjects.
Images depicting the decay of shipbuilding in the North East of England directly echo my own upbringing. My maternal grandmother lived on those very streets now immortalized—streets and back lanes that formed a partial backdrop of my childhood.
In my early adulthood, I found myself working on the very ships he pictured, oblivious to the fact that both the industry and the area would become desolate within just a few years.
““Even then I had a sense that all this was not going to last, though I had no idea how soon it would all be gone” ”
About the Artist
Born in the Isle of Man in 1946, Chris began his career as a commercial photographer before turning to his own work in the late 1960s. His book, In Flagrante, a collection of photographs made in the North East of England during the 1970s and early 1980s, is now recognized as a landmark work of documentary photography. Other bodies of work include the series Isle of Man, Seacoal, Skinningrove and Pirelli.
In 1991 Killip was invited to be a Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University. In 1994 he was made a tenured professor and was department chair from 1994-98. He retired from Harvard in December 2017 and continued to live in Cambridge, MA, USA, until his death in October, 2020.
His photographs feature in the permanent collections of many major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Britain and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Father and Son Watching a Parade, West End, Newcastle; UK, 1980
Source of inspiration
I believe many of us find great interest in photographs from times gone by. They serve as documentaries of a past world, a world where even the most ordinary surroundings now carry a sense of vintage charm.
It's a world that has slipped away, a world we can no longer revisit.
My profound connection with Chris' work has underscored a significant realization. If we don't document our present world, it too will become a lost treasure for future generations. What we might perceive as unremarkable today could be the very images that stir memories for our children as the world continues to evolve – snapshots in time that become vital for the generations to come.
That certainly provides a newfound incentive to document the streets that surround me and to preserve what may be cherished as memories in the future.
Artist showcase
Following is a body of favorite works captured from the Chris Killip website. Although many chronicle the streets I walked as a child Chris captured many other areas of the North East as well as in his birthplace in the Isle of Man.
Credit - All images: © Chris Killip Photography Trust/Magnum Photos
Below is an interview with Chris in memory of his achievements