All images © Chris Killip Photography Trust/Magnum Photos
Chris Killip: ‘Askam-in-Furness’ 1982 at Cooke’s Studios, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, will include almost 80 previously unseen prints and two letters from Killip to members of the community
In 2017, BJP’s Diane Smyth spoke to Chris Kilip about his work in England’s North East from 1973-1985, images from which made up his seminal photobook In Flagrante, released in 1988. Notably, Kilip claimed that “History is what’s written, my pictures are what happened. It’s like a people’s history – the people who history happened to.”
Now, Signal Film and Media is presenting the complete series of Askam-in-Furness by Killip (1946-2020), capturing the place and people of Askam-in-Furness through twenty photographs from 1982, shown together for the first time close to the location where they were taken. The modern silver gelatin prints were hand-printed by Killip himself and have been loaned by the Chris Killip Photography Trust and the Martin Parr Foundation.
The exhibition, opening 19 September, 2025, is curated by Phil Northcott and supported by the Chris Killip Photography Trust and the Martin Parr Foundation. Askam-in-Furness also features 59 digital scans from negatives and an archive installation of previously unseen images by Chris Killip, taken during his time in Askam-in-Furness. These images were recently uncovered by Signal Film and Media during a research project with the local Askam community to reconnect with some of the subjects shown in the series.
Askam-in-Furness launches the re-opening of the newly redeveloped Signal Film and Media gallery within their newly redeveloped arts centre, Cooke’s Studios, which is located in Barrow-in-Furness in the North West of England.
There will also be a panel talk with Ken Grant at the press view on 18 September.
