Chris Killip in The Hague

A beautiful photo exhibition at the Fotomuseum Den Haag, on view next to the Kunstmuseum until January 5, 2025. Anyone who is a fan of England and black and white photography cannot miss this exhibition. Stamps from the Isle of Man are also on display in the showcases. Chris Killip is among the world's top 100 photographers.

Chris Killip retrospective

With his empathetic, but above all honest documentary gaze, Chris Killip (UK, 1946 – 2020) is regarded as one of the most influential post-war British photographers. In the 1970s and 1980s, he repeatedly traveled to Northern England with his camera. It was a turbulent period for the region, during which one major factory after another closed its doors. Widespread unemployment and poverty were the result. Killip knew better than anyone how to capture the impact of the economic decline and focused his camera and his heart on the working class, the people hit hardest by the economic upheaval.

This exhibition is a tribute to the legacy of Killip, a celebrated photographer who remains relatively unknown to the general public. With over 100 works, this retrospective is the most comprehensive overview, including never-before-seen photographs. Killip's working method is characterized by proximity and establishing long-term relationships with communities. He often lived for extended periods with the people he photographed. With his keen powers of observation, he captured the lives of ordinary people in a ruthless yet sympathetic manner. This way of working is clearly visible for the first time in his long-running series *Isle of Man* (1970–1973), for which he returned to his birthplace. Ruthlessly yet tenderly, he captures how the original inhabitants of the island, mostly farmers and fishermen, feel threatened by newcomers earning their money at financial institutions.

After Killip moved to Newcastle in 1975 for a fellowship at British Gas, he continued to photograph in his spare time. Places like Skinningrove, Durham, and Middlesbrough caught his attention. Against the backdrop of shipbuilding and coal mining, he saw the solidarity of communities and the industries that supported them, and stayed long enough to see how this group was losing everything at a rapid pace due to deindustrialization. His work is considered one of the foremost visual records of Britain in the 80s. Killip’s photographs tell the story of the people history ‘died’ of: global developments that hit local communities hard in their livelihoods. Killip compiled the work in the book In Flagrante, which was published in 1988. It is regarded as one of the most important photobooks ever and is a major source of inspiration for the generations of photographers after Killip.  

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Chris Killip retrospective, Fotomuseum Den Haag, through 5 January 2025:

https://www.fotomuseumdenhaag.nl/nl/tentoonstellingen/retrospectief Previous museum blogs: https://www.postzegelblog.nl/tag/made-in-holland/