In contrast to Killip, Smith is a much more elusive figure, his work revered by those that have heard of him, but almost unknown to the mainstream.

Seacoal — CHRIS KILLIP

The overriding theme in most of the photographs taken in the north-east is the industrial decline of the manufacturing towns and the social disintegration that resulted in some parts of the country. Thirty-seven years on, the images are a historical record of a time and a place, but, as gallerist Augusta Edwards points out, they also possess a haunting contemporary resonance. LH: So, in the photographs where intimate stuff is happening, the people aren’t really looking at you, necessarily. The work has so much relevance now given that so many communities feel forsaken by their government,” she elaborates. An accompanying editorial described the photographers as “a couple of smart alecs from Middlesbrough and Newcastle” – Killip was actually from the Isle of Man – and culminated with the suggestion: “Someone should hang THEM on the walls.He had set out to render meaningful the lives of those who had been marginalised by the end of traditional industry in the region – miners, shipbuilders, fishermen and the like – and he did so through acute observation and empathy. That, too, resonates in the work, in the two differing approaches to the same end: the recording of ordinary, working-class lives at the mercy of economic and ideological forces that devalued them. His friend and fellow photographer Martin Parr described it as “the best book about Britain since the war”. In 1964, having decided to pursue a career in photography, he worked as a beach photographer to earn enough to enable him to travel to London. The idea was to show just how “industrious” a photographer Killip was, who juggled commissions and launching a gallery, all while committing himself to the communities that he photographed.

Seacoal - Chris Killip - Steidl Verlag Seacoal - Chris Killip - Steidl Verlag

Their aim was to have cover shoots for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Queen magazines within six months, a goal they subsequently achieved. Killip would remain in touch with Rigden as their careers matured, and he later made portraits for Dury’s 1980 LP Laughter, though by that time Killip had left London for the north of England. They were hailed as the great documentarians of their age for their intimate portraits of the north-east of England in the 70s and 80s. I interviewed Killip for the audio tour (six tracks are embedded below, and the full tour is available free online), but this conversation begins with Killip’s deliberate choice to use an unwieldy plate camera that produces 4×5″ negatives. Though born on the Isle of Man – which he also photographed (see Tate P20400– P20422) – Killip decided to settle in Newcastle-upon-Tyne when the oil and IMF crises, deindustrialisation and redundancy became the defining conditions of life in northern England.An agreement with his father allowed Killip to photograph during the day, process the sheet film in the early evening and then work in the bar until midnight at the Bowling Green pub in Douglas, which by this time the Killip family had moved to. This is a Tracking technology offered by Facebook and used by other Facebook services such as Facebook Custom Audiences. His reputation growing, he agreed terms to assist Justin de Villeneuve, who was responsible for the fashion model Twiggy’s corporate image, as they travelled in a Rolls Royce along the King’s Road. In these images, Grant says, “you get a sense of someone who’s really excited about discovering photography and what photography could do, but also excited about moving through the north of England and figuring out what was taking place there”. In recording their lives, I’m valuing their lives,” he said later of his mainly unemployed subjects.