He was born in 1946 in Douglas, Isle of Man, and left school at the age of sixteen to work as a trainee hotel manager at the Isle of Man's four-star hotel. He decided to engage in photography full-time in June 1964, and grow into a beach photographer. He was employed as the third assistant to Adrian Flowers, a notable London advertising photographer, in October 1964. He worked as a freelance assistant for plentiful photographers in London. After attending his first photographic exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1969, he decided to return to the Isle of Man to photograph. At night, he worked in his father's pub, returning to London on occasion to get his work published. On a return trip to the United States in 1971, Lee Witkin, the director of a New York gallery, commissioned a limited edition portfolio of Killip's Isle of Man work, paying for it in advance so that Killip could keep photographing. He photographed Huddersfield and Bury St Edmunds for the 1972 exhibition Two Views, commissioned by the Art Council of Great Britain. He was the director of Side Gallery in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he was a founding member, exhibition curator, and advisor. From 1980 to 1985, he made occasional cover photos for The London Review of Books while continuing to live in Newcastle and photographing throughout the North East of England. Pirelli UK commissioned him to shoot the workers at their tyre factory in Burton-on-Trent in 1989. He received the Henri Cartier Bresson Award in 1989, and a Visiting Lectureship at Harvard University's Department of Visual and Environmental Studies in 1991. He was promoted to tenured professor and department chair.
'In Flagrante' - exhibition 1988-90
Today, I would like to look at his photobook "In Flagrante," which is the most important document of the terrible impact of de-industrialization on working-class towns in northern England throughout the 1970s and 1980s. De-industrialization is the reduction of industrial activity or capacity in a region or economy, especially of heavy industry or manufacturing industry. It is one of the most significant economic processes to occur in the UK. De-industrialization in the UK has involved the decline of heavy industries such as coal mining, shipbuilding and steel manufacturing. As we can read:"North East England was one of the first industrialised regions in the UK. Tens of thousands of people were employed in heavy industry including coal mining and shipbuilding. However, it was also one of the first regions to be affected by de-industrialisation with the closure of coal mines and shipyards. De-industrialisation also led to a negative multiplier effect. Many smaller businesses that supplied and supported heavy industries closed, a knock-on effect affecting thousands of people. North East England has suffered huge job losses and a rise in unemployment as factories and industrial sites closed. Many of those employed in heavy industries struggled to find new jobs with the skills they have." (Internet geography, 2022)
This exhibition, which includes maquettes, contact sheets, and work prints to reveal the artist's process, is built around the fifty pictures of In Flagrante and I will make selection of few photos from his work and think about how the pictures was made.
As my progression route is English language firstly I would like to know the meaning of 'In flagrante' phrase. Actually the full phrase sounds 'In flagrante delicto' which means 'caught in the act'. "The phrase combines the present active participle flagrāns with the noun dēlictum. In this term the Latin preposition in, not indicating motion, takes the ablative. The closest literal translation would be "in blazing offence", where "blazing" is a metaphor for vigorous, highly visible action. The Latin term is sometimes used colloquially as a euphemism for someone being caught in the midst of sexual activity." (Definitions.net, 2022)
Now I can imagine the process of deindustrialization affected people badly. Now I will choose two photos and think how the images were made.
Analyzing an image
When we want to discuss about the image, we should consider elements like form, process and content of it. I will try to answer following questions to analyze Killip's images. What surprised me that I can even discuss about the texture - how would the image feel if I touch it. That is interesting because my senses play very important role in my life.
I think the photographer made this picture using the rule of composition - the rule of third, which I will discuss in the next blog posts. My first feeling about this photo is an empathy. Also I like it because it shows human emotions. I think the photographer took this photo because he wanted to show realism of situation that prevailed during deindustrialization, mostly poverty and poorness. I think the photo has good exposure, not too dark, on first plan I can see boy character sitting and he is doing a gesture of resignation, probably crying. He is wearing poor and dirty clothes. I can see the building is made from the brick, all the elements behind the boy are blurred and in the same time the character of the boy stays sharp. The main color is grey, Also I noticed that the boy's pants are darker than his coat, socks, shoes and the building. The the belt, his hands and face are in contrast to the other dark elements of the picture. I think the photo were taken in daytime outside the studio. I think the photo is successful because it does reflect the seriousness of those times.
Killip says: "When I first saw the beach at Lynemouth in January 1976, I recognized the industry above it but nothing else I was seeing. The beach beneath me was full of activity with horses and carts backed into the sea. Men were standing in the sea next to the carts, using small wire nets attached to poles to fish out the coal from the water beneath them. The place confounded time; here the Middle Ages and the twentieth century intertwined." (Quoted in Dilnot 2012, p.17.)
Killip: "I wanted to record people’s lives because I valued them. I wanted them to be remembered. If you take a photograph of someone they are immortalized, they’re there forever. For me that was important, that you’re acknowledging people’s lives, and also contextualizing people’s lives.” (Strike, 2019).
After I researched Chris Killip's exhibition now I know the photography is not only taking pictures of buildings and nature, it goes more deeply by photography of people's lives, emotions and times, it also shows the history - one that cannot be forgotten.
Sources:
The J. Paul Getty Museum Now Then: Chris Killip and the Making of In Flagrante. (2022), Available at: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/chris_killip/ (Accessed: 15 January 2022).
National Portrait Gallery, (2022), Available at: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw283811/Chris-Killip (Accessed: 15 January 2022).Chris Killip (1978-2018), Available at: https://chriskillip.com/bio.html (Accessed: 15 January 2022).
O'Hagan, S. (2016) 'In Flagrante Two by Chris Killip review - bleakness and boredom in sharp focus', The Guardian, 21 February. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/21/in-flagrante-two-review-chris-killip-thatcher-sea-coal-north-east-england-northumberland-industrial- (Accessed: 15 January 2022).
https://www.definitions.net/definition/in+flagrante+delictohttps://photoeducation.weebly.com/image-analysis1.html
https://www.internetgeography.net/topics/de-industrialisation-in-the-uk/
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/killip-boo-and-his-rabbit-p81057
https://flashbak.com/chris-killip-tyneside-1970s-410489/
Some good commentary here backed up by a range of sources. Well done.
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