Manx National Heritage, the organisation responsible for promoting the Isle of Man’s heritage and culture, will host a talk by distinguished Manx photographer Chris Killip at the Manx Museum on Saturday 7 May. Chris will reflect on his varied career and experience before signing copies of his new book.
Killip’s career has been wide-ranging and included a period living and working in the north east of England. He has received prestigious commissions and recognition of his work, both in the form of awards and in major institutions featuring his work in their permanent collections. A teaching connection with Harvard University was established in 1991 and continues to this day.
The event marks the opening day of a new exhibition Chris Killip’s Isle of Man Revisited. Born in 1946, Chris lived on the Isle of Man until his late teens when he moved to London to work first as a photographer’s assistant and then as a freelance photographer. In the early 1970s he returned to photograph the island, recording buildings, interiors, natural features and people of all ages at work and rest. Now, visitors to the Manx Museum have the rare opportunity to view large prints of some of these, selected from 250 photographs acquired by Manx National Heritage from Chris Killip.
The Island, as seen through Killip’s camera lens, makes a lasting impression. What he saw and what he chose to photograph has the ongoing power to startle and unsettle as well as to mesmerise and delight. Killip himself recognises the different relationships people can have to his work. It makes him “very happy that the work is in the Isle of Man because that is where it well and truly belongs. It is more open to all sorts of other meanings which it couldn’t have in other places because it doesn’t belong.”
Exhibition dates: 7 May – 30 July 2016, Manx Museum, Kingswood Grove, Douglas, Isle of Man
‘An Afternoon with Chris Killip’, Manx Museum, 2pm, Saturday 7 May
Chris Killip will provide insights into his career and will sign purchased copies of his book Isle of Man Revisited from 3pm. Tickets: £10 Adult, £5 Student available from the Manx Museum Gallery Shop and online. 10% discount to Members.
ENDS
Image Caption: Threshing at Ballakilley, St Johns, 1972. Copyright: Chris Killip.