The Hyman Collection is delighted to have acquired a rare complete portfolio of Chris Killip's Isle of Man, a landmark in the artist's own work and in British photography.
Chris Killip's most important early work presents the people and places of his homeleand, the Isle of Man. Killip's early influences are often cited as including Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Bill Brandt and August Sander. However, it is Paul Strand's influence, above all others, that can be felt in Killip's Isle of Manportfolio. These twelve beautifully printed, small and tender pictures, often have such a striking resemblance to Paul Strand's remarkable photographs of the Outer Hebrides (which were taken in 1954 and first published as Tir A'Mhurain. The Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 1962), that it is hard to tell them apart. It is surely significant, in this respect, that this selection of Killip's Isle of Man photographs was for a special limited edition portfolio that was published in America by an American publisher in 1973. The creation of a limited edition portfolio was incredibly unusual in a British context, in which a commercial market for photography was almost non-existent and editioning virtually unknown, and the strategically selected photographs, which as with Strand's book combined intimate portraits with evocative landscapes, were clearly conceived as accessible to an American audience.
Chris Killip's most important early work presents the people and places of his homeleand, the Isle of Man. Killip's early influences are often cited as including Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Bill Brandt and August Sander. However, it is Paul Strand's influence, above all others, that can be felt in Killip's Isle of Manportfolio. These twelve beautifully printed, small and tender pictures, often have such a striking resemblance to Paul Strand's remarkable photographs of the Outer Hebrides (which were taken in 1954 and first published as Tir A'Mhurain. The Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 1962), that it is hard to tell them apart. It is surely significant, in this respect, that this selection of Killip's Isle of Man photographs was for a special limited edition portfolio that was published in America by an American publisher in 1973. The creation of a limited edition portfolio was incredibly unusual in a British context, in which a commercial market for photography was almost non-existent and editioning virtually unknown, and the strategically selected photographs, which as with Strand's book combined intimate portraits with evocative landscapes, were clearly conceived as accessible to an American audience.
November 25, 2015
