Chris Killip at Le Bal

It’s the final month for this exceptional show “What Happened? / Great Britain 1970-1990” from Chris Killip, a major figure from British photography. From the early 1970s Chris Killip opened up new perspectives for documentary photography whose influence is perceptible in the work of others such as Martin Parr, Tom Wood and Paul Graham. Inspired by the work of Paul Strand and Walker Evans in America, Bill Brandt, August Sander and Robert Franck in Europe, from 1969 he documented the changes on the Isle of Man whose new status as a tax haven was transforming the age-old Manx culture and way of life. A founding member, in 1976, of Side Gallery in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Killip would spend the next twenty years among the people of the north of England, in Huddersfield, Lynemouth and Skinningrove. He became the chronicler of declining British industry, and the often violent confrontation between the working class and hostile economic policy. (PS. This “British season” continues at Le Bal this Autumn with a show from artist-photographer Paul Graham.)
Until 19 Aug. Noon-8pm (10pm Thu). Weekends, 11am-8pm (7pm Sun). Closed Mon, Tue.
Le Bal, 6 impasse de la Défense, 18th. www.le-bal.fr/