PhotographerÌýChris Killip’sÌýIn FlagranteÌý(1988)Ìýremains one of theÌýmost important photobooks to document the devastating impact of deindustrialisation on working-class communities in the North ofÌýEngland in the 1970s and 1980s. Both poetic and emotive, the series captures the raw energy and despair of a region undergoing a drastic transition. Opening on 23 May,ÌýNow Then: Chris Killip and the Making of In Flagrante, provides an unmatched exploration of the artist’s process of building intense relationships with the places and people that he captured through the lens. It also sheds light on his decision to reconsiderÌýthe work, which was made accessible to a new generation through a reprint by Errata Editions.
Relocating from London to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1975 after receiving a Northern Arts Fellowship, Killip began chronicling the area’s way of life as it battled with significant changes. By the time that the photographer arrivedÌýin the North East, the process of deindustrialisation was well underway. A place once considered to be the backbone of the British shipbuilding and mining industries was in the midst of decline, and its working class communities were struggling to make ends meet. Prohibited from photographing inside old factories and shipyards, Killip looked to theÌýsurrounding towns and their inhabitants.
Now Then invites audiences to engage with more than 100 works, including maquettes, contact sheets and work prints, as well as material from two related and rarely exhibited projects titledÌýSeacoalÌýand Skinningrove. The 50 photographs featured in the firstÌýedition of In FlagranteÌýwill be displayed alongside three additional images reproduced as part of In Flagrante 2Ìýin 2015. The first 50 images are all drawn from the museum’s collection and were acquired with the assistance of the Getty Museum Photographs Council. Grouped together with Seacoal,Ìýwhich portrays Killip’s experience of the coastal village of Lynemouth, and Skinningrove, a series depicting theÌývillage with which it shares its name, these works reflect the sheer malaise of the period’s socioeconomic system. It also draws attention toÌýthe perceived disposability of the working class.
While two photographs fromÌýSkinningroveÌýappear inÌýIn Flagrante,Ìýthis is the first time that the body of work will be shown in its entirety.ÌýA short film by Michael Almereyda featuring Killip recalling stories about the people of Skinningrove, and sometimes disclosing tragic details about their fates, will be on view alongside prints from this series.
Now Then: Chris Killip and the Making of In Flagrante,Ìý23 May – 13 August,ÌýJ. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center.
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Credits
1.ÌýChris Killip, Helen and her hoola-hoop, Lynemouth, Northumberland, 1984.
