This is a set of 100 pigment prints from The Station by Chris Killip.

Late in 2016 Matthew Killip serendipitously discovered a box of photographs his father had made at The Station, an anarcho-punk music venue in Gateshead which was open from 1981 to 1985.

The Station was a vital space for young people in Gateshead at the time, and went beyond its use as just a music and rehearsal space, to provide a place of self-expression and community linked with the sub-cultures and punk politics of the time. As Killip recollects:

“When I first went to The Station in April 1985, I was amazed by the energy and feel of the place. It was totally different, run for and by the people who went there. Every Saturday that I could, I photographed there. Nobody ever asked me where I was from or even who I was. A 39-year-old with cropped white hair, always wearing a suit, with pockets stitched inside the jacket to hold my slides. With a 4 x 5 camera around my neck and a Norman flash and its battery around my waist, I must have looked like something out of a 1950s B movie. 1985 was just after the miners strike and there was a lot of youth unemployment. Most of the punks at The Station didn’t have a job, and this place, run as a very inclusive collective, was so important to them and their self-worth.”

In 2020, The Station by Chris Killip was exhibited at the Martin Parr Foundation. As well as prints from the project, a number of supporting materials were displayed such as; design references, vernacular photographs and flyers from the Station, as well as a Vinyl EP produced to fundraise for the venue. The Station was published by Steidl in 2020 with design by PONY Ltd.

MEDIUM
Archival pigment prints

DIMENSION
40.6 x 50.8cm & 50.8 x 60.9cm

EDITION
N/A

DATES
1985

Prints housed on behalf of Chris Killip Photography Trust.