This was England: Chris Killip’s pioneering photography – in pictures

From shipbuilding to coal mining, Chris Killip embedded himself in local communities in the 1970s and 80s long enough to capture their solidarity – and decline


Main image: ‘He shaped British photography’ … Girls playing in the street, Wallsend, Tyneside, 1976. Photograph: Chris Killip

  • Father and son watching a parade, West-end of Newcastle, Tyneside, 1980

    A full-career retrospective of work by one of the UK’s most important and influential postwar documentary photographers, Chris Killip (1946-2020), will run at the Photographers’ Gallery in London from 7 October to 19 February. The exhibition is accompanied by a major monograph co-published with Thames and Hudson. All photographs: Chris Killip Photography Trust/Magnum Photos
    Father and son watching a parade, West-end of Newcastle, Tyneside, 1980A full-career retrospective of work by one of the UK’s most important and influential post-war documentary photographers, Chris Killip (1946-2020), is due to take place at The Photographers’ Gallery from 6 October 2022 to 19 February 2023. The exhibition is accompanied by a major monograph co-published with Thames and Hudson. All photographs: Chris Killip Photography Trust/Magnum Photos

  • ‘Boo’ on a horse, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumbria, 1984

    The retrospective exhibition of more than 150 works serves as the most comprehensive survey of the photographer’s work to date and includes previously unseen ephemera and colour works
    ‘Boo’ on a horse, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumbria, 1984The retrospective exhibition of more than 150 works serves as the most comprehensive survey of the photographer’s work to date and includes previously unseen ephemera and colour works

  • Helen and her Hula-hoop, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumbria, 1984

    Immersed in the communities he photographed, Chris Killip’s photographs of those affected by economic shifts throughout the 1970s and 80s in the north of England remain without parallel
    Helen and her Hula-hoop, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumbria, 1984Immersed in the communities he photographed, Chris Killip’s photographs of those affected by economic shifts throughout the 1970s and 80s in the North of England remain without parallel

  • Cookie in the snow, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumbria, 1984

    Whilst marking a moment of deindustrialisation, Killip went beyond the immediate urgency to simply record such circumstances. He wanted to affirm the value of lives he grew close to – lives that, as he once put it, ‘had history done to them’
    Cookie in the snow, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumbria, 1984Whilst marking a moment of deindustrialisation, Killip went beyond the urgency to simply record such circumstances. He wanted to affirm the value of lives he grew close to - lives that, as he once described, ‘had history done to them’

  • Girls playing in the street, Wallsend, Tyneside, 1976

    Against a background of shipbuilding and coal mining, he witnessed the togetherness of communities and the industries that sustained them. He also stayed long enough to see their loss
    Girls Playing in the street, Wallsend, Tyneside,1976Against a background of shipbuilding and coal mining, he witnessed the togetherness of communities and the industries that sustained them. He also stayed long enough to see their loss

  • Gordon in the water, Seacoal Beach, Lynemouth,1983

    At Lynemouth, for his series Seacoal, Killip photographed men on horse-driven carts reclaiming coal that had been discarded into the sea by a nearby mine
    Gordon in the water, Seacoal Beach, Lynemouth,1983 At Lynemouth, for his series Seacoal, Killip photographed men on horse-driven carts reclaiming coal which had been discarded into the sea by a nearby mine

  • Unidentified man and Brian Laidler, Seacoal Beach, Lynemouth, January, 1984

    The exhibition also draws on less familiar work by a photographer whose life and career has proved highly influential in shaping British photography. Killip’s dedicated recording of the miners’ strike of 1984-5 and his engagement with shipbuilding a decade earlier remain lesser known yet pivotal works that portrayed not only a changing economy, but the concerns of a photographer moved to witness them
    Unidentified man and Brian Laidler, Seacoal Beach, Lynemouth, January, 1984The exhibition also draws upon less familiar work by a photographer whose life and career has proved so influential in shaping British photography. Killip’s dedicated recording of the miners’ strike of 1984-5 and his engagement with shipbuilding a decade earlier, remain lesser known yet pivotal works that betrayed not only a changing economy, but the concerns of a photographer moved to witness them

  • Family on a Sunday walk, Skinningrove, 1982

    You can read more about this image in the Observer Big Picture column
    Family on a Sunday walk, Skinningrove, 1982You can read more about this image in the Observer Big Picture column

  • Bever, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, 1983

    At Skinningrove he documented a group of young men, their friendships and labours, as they waited for the tide to turn
    Bever, Skinningrove, N. Yorkshire, 1983At Skinningrove he documented a group of young men, their friendships and labours, as they waited for the tide to turn

  • TT Races Supporter, Isle of Man, 1971

    The exhibition features some early work made in Killip’s native Isle of Man
    TT Races Supporter, Isle of Man, 1971The exhibition features some early work made in his native Isle of Man

  • Youth on wall, Jarrow, Tyneside, 1975

    Killip died in October 2020. This exhibition and book coincides with another joint show at Augusta Edwards Fine Art, London, from 12 October – 6 November
    Youth on wall, Jarrow, Tyneside, 1975Killip died in October 2020. This exhibition and book coincides with another joint show at Augusta Edwards Fine Art, London. from 1 October – 6 November 2022
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