Born in Douglas, Isle of Man in 1946, Chris Killip left school at sixteen and joined the isle’s only four star hotel as a trainee manager. In June 1964 he realised that a future in hotel management was not on the cards and instead decided to pursue photography full time. He duly became a beach photographer in order to earn enough money to leave the Isle of Man.

In October 1964 Chris was hired as the third assistant to the leading London advertising photographer Adrian Flowers. He then worked as a freelance assistant for various photographers in London from 1966-69. In 1969, after seeing his very first exhibition of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he had an epiphany: photography was something that could be pursued for its  ...