‘He shaped British photography’ … Girls playing in the street, Wallsend, Tyneside, 1976. Photograph: Chris Killip

Chris Killip spent enough time in local communities in the 1970s and 1980s, from shipbuilding to coal mining, to document their cohesion and demise

1980 photo shows a father and kid in Newcastle's West End, Tyneside, watching a parade

Chris Killip (1946-2020), one of the most significant and influential postwar documentary photographers in the UK, will have a complete career retrospective on display from 7 October to 19 February at the Photographers' Gallery in London. A significant monograph co-published with Thames & Hudson goes along with the show. All images courtesy of Magnum Photos and Chris Killip Photography Trust.

Boo riding a horse in 1984 at Seacoal Camp in Lynemouth, Northumbria

The retrospective show, which has more than 150 pieces, is the most thorough examination of the photographer's output to date and including previously unpublished color and ephemera pieces.

Seacoal Camp at Lynemouth, Northumbria, including Helen and her hula hoop, 1984

Chris Killip spent the 1970s and 1980s in the north of England, immersed in the communities he shot, and his images of persons impacted by economic changes at that time are still unparalleled.

Seacoal Camp, Lynemouth, Northumbria, 1984, "Cookie in the Snow"

Killip went above the urgent need to just document such situations in order to chronicle a time of deindustrialization. He felt attached to people whose lives, in his words, "had history done to them," and he wanted to confirm the worth of their lives.

Street children in 1976 in Wallsend, Tyneside

He saw the cohesion of towns and the enterprises that kept them alive against a backdrop of shipbuilding and coal mining. He remained long enough to see their defeat as well.

Gordon swimming at Seacoal Beach near Lynemouth in 1983

In Lynemouth, Killip captured miners retrieving coal from the sea after a neighboring mine had dumped it there for his series Seacoal.

Brian Laidler with an unidentified guy at Seacoal Beach in Lynemouth in January 1984

The show also includes less well-known pieces by a photographer whose life and work have had a significant impact on British photography. Killip's meticulous documentation of the 1984–1985 miners' strike and his involvement with shipbuilding a decade earlier are two less well-known but crucial works that captured not just a changing economy but also the worries of a photographer motivated to see them.

Sunday stroll with the family, Skinningrove, 1982

The Observer Big Picture section has additional information about this picture.

Bever, North Yorkshire's Skinningrove, 1983

He captured the activities of a group of young men waiting for the tide to change at Skinningrove, including their friendships and labors.

Supporter of the TT Races, Isle of Man, 1971

Some early pieces created in Killip's home Isle of Man are on display.

Young person on wall, 1975, Jarrow, Tyneside

In October 2020, Killip passed away. Between October 12 and November 6, this exhibition and book will be on view at Augusta Edwards Fine Art in London.

Thanks to The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.