Chris Killip facts for kids

Christopher David Killip (born July 11, 1946 – died October 13, 2020) was a famous photographer from the Isle of Man. He was known for his powerful black and white photos. These pictures often showed people and places, especially in the Tyneside area of England during the 1980s.

Chris Killip taught at Harvard University from 1991 to 2017. He was a Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies. He won the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award [Wikidata] for his book In Flagrante. His work has been shown in exhibitions all over the world.

Life as a Photographer

Chris Killip was born in Douglas, on the Isle of Man. His parents ran a pub there. He left school at 16 and first worked as a hotel manager trainee. He also took photos on the beach.

In 1964, when he was 18, he moved to London. There, he worked as an assistant to a photographer named Adrian Flowers. Soon, Chris started working for himself. He also spent time helping in his father's pub.

Early Photography Work

By 1969, Chris Killip decided to focus only on his own photography. His early work from this time was published in a book called Isle of Man: A Book about the Manx in 1980. The Arts Council helped publish it.

In 1972, the Arts Council asked him to photograph Bury St Edmunds and Huddersfield. Later, in 1975, he won a special award from Northern Arts. This award allowed him to photograph the northeast of England for two years. He moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to do this important work.

In Flagrante and the 1980s

In 1977, Chris Killip helped start the Side Gallery in Newcastle. He was also its first director for a while. He created many photos from his time in the northeast of England. These were published in his famous book In Flagrante in 1988.

These black and white photos showed working-class communities in Tyneside. They captured the feeling of the area as industries were closing down. Many people see these photos as a very important record of life in Britain during the 1980s.

The book In Flagrante was very popular when it came out. One reviewer even called it "one of the greatest photography books ever published."

Later Projects

In 1988, a company called Pirelli UK asked Chris Killip to photograph their tire factory. He started this project in 1989. It was hard to photograph inside the dark factory. He eventually used flash and a large camera to get the right pictures. These photos were shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1989. They were also published as a book in 2007.

From 1992 to 2004, Chris Killip photographed religious journeys and other scenes in rural Ireland. This work was published in 2009 as the book Here Comes Everybody.

In 1991, he moved to the USA to teach at Harvard University. He became a full professor in 1994. He taught there until 2017. His book Arbeit/Work came out in 2012. It went along with a big exhibition of his work in Germany.

Personal Life

Chris Killip had a son named Matthew with photographer Markéta Luskačová.

After he started teaching at Harvard, Chris Killip lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2000, he married Mary Halpenny, who also worked at Harvard.

Chris Killip passed away on October 13, 2020, at the age of 74. He died from lung cancer.

Exhibitions

Chris Killip's photographs have been shown in many exhibitions around the world.

Solo Exhibitions

• Two Views, Two Cities. Huddersfield and Bury St Edmunds, 1970s
• Seacoal, Side Gallery (Newcastle) and subsequent tour, 1984
• Another Country, Serpentine Gallery (London). Photographs of northeast England by Killip and Graham Smith, 1985
• Art Institute of Chicago, 1986
• In Flagrante, Victoria and Albert Museum (London) and subsequent tour of Europe, 1988
• Working at Pirelli, Victoria and Albert Museum (London), 1990
• Chris Killip Retrospective, Palais de Tokyo (Paris), 1991
• The Last Art Show, Jarrow Bede Gallery (Jarrow), 1996. Photos of Jarrow.
• Chris Killip Photographs 1971–96, Manx Museum (Douglas), 1997
• Chris Killip: Sixty Photographs, Old Post Office (Berlin), 2000
• Les rencontres d'Arles festival, France.
• Arbeit/Work, Museum Folkwang (Essen, Germany), 2012. A look back at his work.
• What Happened / Great Britain 1970–1990. Le Bal (Paris), May–August 2012.
• Now Then: Chris Killip and the making of "In Flagrante", J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), May–August 2017.
• The Last Ships, Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle on Tyne)
• The Station, Martin Parr Foundation (Bristol), September–December 2020.

Group Exhibitions

• The Art of Photography, 1839–1989, Royal Academy (London), 1989.
• In the Face of History: European Photographers in the 20th Century. Barbican Arts Centre, London, 2006.
• No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1968–1987, Hayward Gallery (London); Ujazdów Castle (Warsaw), November 2008 – January 2009; Tullie House (Carlisle), May–July 2008; and Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Aberystwyth), March–April 2008.
• Facts of Life / British Documentary Photography, Photomonth, National Museum, Kraków, August–November 2010. British photography 1974–1997.

Awards and Recognition

Chris Killip received several important awards for his photography:

• 1989: Henri Cartier-Bresson Award [Wikidata], from the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Paris. He won this for his book In Flagrante.
• 2013: He was a finalist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. This was for his exhibition What Happened – Great Britain 1970–1990.
• 2020: He received the Dr. Erich Salomon Award from the German Society for Photography, Cologne.

Where His Work Is Kept

Chris Killip's photographs are part of permanent collections in many major museums:

• Government Art Collection, UK: 3 prints
• Museum of Modern Art, New York: 20 prints
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia: 12 prints
• Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam: 4 prints
• Tate, UK: 80 prints
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 93 prints, including the 69 prints used for Isle of Man.