Chris Killip

Who is Chris Killip?

Chris Killip is a Manx photographer who has worked at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts since 1991, where he is a professor of visual and environmental studies.

Christopher David Killip was born in Douglas, Isle of Man and in 1964 moved to London where he worked as an assistant to the advertising photographer Adrian Flowers. He soon went freelance, but in 1969 stopped his commercial work to concentrate on the photography that he wanted to do. In 1969 he moved back to the Isle of Man, photographing it extensively. The work from this time was eventually published by the Arts Council as Isle of Man: A Book about the Manx in 1980. In 1974 he was commissioned to photograph Bury St Edmunds and Huddersfield, and in 1975 he won a two-year fellowship from Northern Arts to photograph the northeast of England; Creative Camera devoted its entire May 1977 issue to this work

Killip is well known for his gritty black and white images of people and place. In 1977 he became a founder, exhibition curator, and advisor at the Side Gallery, Newcastle, and worked as its director for 18 months.