Chris Killip: In Flagrante: Books on Books No. 4

by Gerry Badger, John Berger, Sylvia Grant

Errata Editions' Books on Books series is an ongoing publishing project dedicated to making rare and out-of-print photography books accessible to students and photobook enthusiasts. These are not reprints or facsimiles but complete studies of the original books. Each volume in the series presents the entire content, page for page, of an original master bookwork which, up until now, has been too rare or expensive for most to experience. Through a mix of classic and contemporary titles, this series spans the breadth of photographic practice as it has appeared on the printed page and allows further study of the creation and meanings of these great works of art. Each volume in the series contains illustrations of every page in the original photobook, a new essay by an established writer on photography, production notes about the creation of the original edition and biographical and bibliographical information about each artist.
Often referenced as the most important photobook to come out of England in the 1980s, Chris Killip's In Flagrante stands the test of time today. Published in 1988, In Flagrante shows the communities in Northern England that were devastated by the deindustrialization common to policies carried out by Margaret Thatcher and her predecessors starting in the mid-1970s. Books on Books 4 presents Killip's political yet lyric work along with a new essay, "Dispatches from a War Zone" by noted photo historian and critic Gerry Badger.

Genres: Photography, Art

80 pages, Hardcover

First published October 10, 2001

Reviews

[Zioluc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carrellata sui lavori di Killip, interessante ma il formato è come sempre troppo piccolo per apprezzare come si deve.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in the late 80s/early 90s, so this edition (the only one I could find on GR) seems wrong. Anyway if it's the same book it is a series of photos set in England's North East during the Thatcherite crisis of shut mines and unemployment showing the hopelessness of the young and old in those communities worst effected. I remember seeing a discussion on TV about this book and one commentator accused Killip of setting up the shots, and general mendacity. They're definitely making a political point, but they still portray an accurate truth, I think - my family on my mother's side are from Jarrow, near the communities portrayed. Maybe I'm just gullible.