The definitive, full-career retrospective of the life and work of Chris Killip (1946-2020), one of the UK’s most important and influential post-war documentary photographers.

‘I didn’t set out to be the photographer of the English de-Industrial Revolution. It happened all around me during the time I was photographing’ Chris Killip, 2019

Grounded in sustained immersion and participation in the communities he photographed, Chris Killip’s keenly observed work chronicled ordinary people’s lives in stark, yet sympathetic, detail. His photographs are recognized as some of the most important visual records of 1980s Britain; as editor of this book Ken Grant reflects, they tell the story of those who ‘had history “done to them”, who felt its malicious disregard and yet, like the photographer with whom they shared so much of their lives, refused to yield or look away.’

Published to coincide with the first full retrospective of Killip’s life and work at the Photographers’ Gallery, London, this book, designed by Niall Sweeney & Nigel Truswell at Pony Ltd, presents photographs from each of his major series alongside lesser-known works. It includes a foreword by Brett Rogers, in-depth essays by Ken Grant tracing Killip’s life and career, and texts by Gregory Halpern, Amanda Maddox and Lynsey Hanley.

Foreword by Brett Rogers, Director of the Photographers’ Gallery

1. Essay by Ken Grant covering: Isle of Man Graveyard of the Ships / Early years / The Manx Peasant culture / The Sea / London-New York/ The Isle of Man Book

Folio Section 1: Isle of Man TT Racers Huddersfield

2. Essay by Ken Grant covering: Huddersfield, Travels of England, the North, Amber-Side Gallery, Seacoal, Askam and Skinningrove

Folio Section 2: Askam Skinningrove Seacoal The Station folio

Folio Section 3: Here Comes Everybody

Folio Section 4: Pirelli Factory

3. Essay by Ken Grant covering: The Page and the Wall: Another Country, The Miner's Strike, The Politics of Photography, The Station, In Flagrante, British Photography from the Thatcher Years (MoMA Exhibition)

Folio Section 4: North East Photographs 2

4. Essay by Ken Grant covering: Chris Killip in America, Chris Killip in Ireland (Here Comes Everybody), Storytellers, Writer, Steidl books, Zines, Cafe Royal Books (The Seaside), The Portrait, Pirelli, Shipbuilding, Revisiting the Region, The Photography of Deindustrialisation, The Last Ships, Finish