Signal Film and Media is hosting Chris Killip’s ‘Askam-in-Furness’, the first full showing of the late photographer’s poignant series at its newly redeveloped Cooke’s Studios gallery until Saturday, November 1.
Mr Killip (1946–2020) is regarded as one of the UK’s most important post-war documentary photographers, known for capturing working-class life in the north of England.
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His Askam-in-Furness series, shot in 1981 and 1982, features portraits of local people alongside images of the coastal village landscape during a time of social and political upheaval.
Chris Killip once said: “History is what’s written, my pictures are what happened. It’s like a people’s history – the people who history happened to.”
Miners’ Strike 1984 mass picket confronting police lines, Bilston Glen(Image: © John Sturrock/reportdigital.co.uk)
The images were recently uncovered by Signal Film and Media during a research project with the local Askam community to reconnect with some of the subjects shown in the ‘Askam-in-Furness’ series.
The exhibition will include 20 silver gelatin prints hand-printed by Mr Killip and have been loaned by the Chris Killip Photography Trust and the Martin Parr Foundation.
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It also includes 59 digital scans from negatives and an archive of previously unseen images taken during his time in Askam.
Curator Phil Northcott said: “These images offer us an important and poetic record of a community shaped by industry, landscape, and resilience. While selected works in the series have been shown internationally, the complete series has never been shown in its entirety since Chris Killip shared his work with the Askam community soon after he’d made it, in 1982.
Buying an ice cream at Yorkshire Miners’ Gala, June 1984(Image: Brenda Prince)
“We know that Chris Killip developed a close relationship with members of the community and gave the portrait subjects their portraits to hang in their own homes.
“Coincidentally, one of these is my friend Lee, who was photographed in ‘Boy with Pigeon’ by Killip and given the print. Our new research project, which runs alongside this exhibition, is uncovering new stories that reveal more of Chris Killip’s time in Askam.”
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The show also launches the £1.4m redevelopment of Cooke’s Studios, supported by Arts Council England and the UK Government’s Community Ownership Fund.
The opening night of Chris Killip’s poignant photographic series(Image: Signal Film and Media)
Work by Mr Killip also features in ‘ONE YEAR! Photographs from the miners’ Strike 1984–85’, a second exhibition.
Curated by Isaac Blease and from the Martin Parr Foundation Collection, this exhibition marks the 40th anniversary of the year-long industrial action that defined a generation. It complements the Chris Killip show, exploring the role photography played in documenting and resisting the pit closures.
The exhibition opening night at Cooke Studios(Image: Signal Film and Media)
‘ONE YEAR! Photographs from the miners’ strike 1984–85’ is a touring show featuring work by Brenda Prince, John Sturrock, Jenny Matthews, Roger Tiley, John Harris, Chris Killip, Imogen Young, Phil Winnard and Howard Sooley, alongside rare posters, badges, records and publications.
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The exhibited works span the full year of the strike and cover a variety of approaches, from photo-journalism to photo-montage, as well as more vernacular uses of photographs such as the albums compiled by Philip Winnard, himself a striking miner.
Man carrying sticks in Askam, 1982(Image: Chris Killip)
Depicted throughout are the infamous clashes between police and flying pickets but also the camaraderie between those on strike and the activities of support groups such as Women Against Pit Closures.
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Collectively, the materials speak to both the power and contradictions of photography as a tool of solidarity, propaganda, and people’s history.
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The exhibitions run at Cooke’s Studios, 104 Abbey Road, Barrow to November 1. Admission is free.