Youth on wall, Jarrow, Tyneside

Silver gelatin print entitled 'Youth on wall, Jarrow, Tyneside', photographed by Chris Killip, 1976. One of a group of 105 silver prints by Chris Killip & Graham Smith comprising their exhibition. `Another Country' 1985. Prints from negatives taken 1975-1985.

Chris Killip (1946 - present) is known for his powerful and moving black and white photographs which chronicle industrial decline in the north east of England in the late 1970s and 1980s.

This photograph is drawn from his 1988 book In Flagrante, described as one of the most important photography books of the 1980s. It is an important record of life in the north east of England during the Thatcher years. Characterised by high levels of unemployment brought on by policies of de-industrialisation, the period was a dramatic era in social history.

An acute sense of melancholy pervades Killip's photographs which are careful personal observations, rather than calls to action. Killip's work helped to establish the now familiar tradition of documentary photography located in the context of fine art.