When you look at one of Chris Killip's black and white photographs, you see the soul and experience the essence of his subjects in Northeastern England. That is true whether you are looking at a portrait, a town, or a landscape. Your eyes are drawn from the white light reflecting off a person’s face or the sky or sea through to the deep darkness of the very same person’s eyes, through the stripes of stone hedgerows marking plots of land, or through to the pieces of coal being shoveled from the swirl of the sea. And each effort reveals the innermost light – the truth – of the subject’s experience with the vagaries of life that have been thrown at each across time, by experience, and within each environment.
Killip’s photographs are not merely a record of a particular moment in time; they are living, breathing stories that transcend time and ask us – the viewer – to wonder about such people and places, to join in and learn of their journey, and to question not only innocence lost but what would be necessary for paradise to be regained.
Opposite:
‘Boo’ on a horse, Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumbria, 1984 © Chris Killip Photography Trust/Magnum Photos.
Courtesy:
The Photographers'
Gallery
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