“I don’t pretend to be an intellectual or a philosopher. I just look.”–Josef Koudelka
Chris Killip was one of Britain’s most important documentary photographers, and yet, he has been under appreciated outside of the UK. His contributions to photography and to his students at Harvard, where he taught from 1991-2017 as Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies, have never gained the wider recognition he deserved, until now.
Coinciding with a major retrospective at The Photographer’s Gallery in London, Thames & Hudson has recently published Chris Killip (1946-2020), offering the most comprehensive collection of Killip’s work to date. What we discover poring through the monograph is an artist at home in the communities he photographed. Chris Killip, himself the son of pub managers from the Isle of Man, lived small town life and the quotidian. He also understood class. His sympathies and work with the historic Miner’s Strike in the Thatcher years make it clear. His 1988 landmark book In Flagrante showed us potently how class impacts communities. Thus, his superlative images come through an intimacy of understanding, an acknowledgement of class, and a love for people.
Killip left school at age 16, and probably never imagined he would one day become a tenured Professor at Harvard, or spend the remainder of his life actively engaged as a working photographer. With his passing in October 2020, this new collection of his work is a fitting tribute to his legacy, the people he photographed and the images he left us. Like his old friend Josef Koudelka, Killip wants us “to look” and to see. –Lane Nevares