The Station – Chris Killip

Late in 2016 Chris Killip’s son serendipitously discovered a box of contact sheets of the photos his father had made at The Station, an anarcho-punk music venue in Gateshead open from 1981 to 1985.
These images of raw youth caught in the heat of celebration had lain dormant for 30 years; they return to life in this book.

The Station was not merely a music and rehearsal space, but a crucible for the self-expression of 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”.

Steidl has released a book with the images previously partly released as a tabloid by Pony in 2018. The publication coincided with the exhibition of the prints at the Martin Parr Foundation in spring 2020.