Those we lost

Chris Killip

Documentary photographer and educator (1946-2020)

ALTHOUGH born in Douglas on the Isle of Man, Chris Killip became best known for his depictions of the people and the de-industrialisation in the North East of England. Killip started off as a freelance commercial photographer in the 1960s, before turning to documentary photography. His first major body of work became his seminal series, In Flagrante, which he shot on a 5x4in camera in the North East between 1973 and 1985. A photo book of the same name was published in 1988 and Killip commented, ‘History is what’s written, my pictures are what happened.’

Killip was never afraid to tell hard-hitting yet deeply human stories. His friend Martin Parr commented, ‘Chris is without a doubt one of the key players in post-war British photography.’ He also described In Flagrante as, ‘the key photo book about Britain since the war.’ Killip’s affinity with the North East continued in 1977 as he co-founded the Side Gallery in Newcastle and served as its first director.

In 1985, his joint exhibition with Graham Smith, Another Country: Photographs of the North East of England, at the Serpentine Gallery, London, was said to have influenced generations of documentary photographers. His influence spread across the Atlantic and in 1991 he was appointed by Harvard University, in the USA, as a Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies, a position he held till 2017.

Killip produced several books after , including (a collection of his photographs from rural Ireland), and . After his filmmaker son, , and , the latter of which depicted the decline of the shipbuilding industry in South Shields and Wallsend.