Chris Killip is one of the most important photographers to come out of England. During the latter half of the 1970s and into the 80s he spent a lot of time documenting Britain's de-industrialization and the resulting economic despair. His 1988 book In Flagrante documented the country's economic divide between the north and south. Even though it was released right as his style of stark black & white photography was falling out of style, the book is considered "one of the greatest photography books ever published."

From The Guardian, "In 1988, when Chris Killip published In Flagrante, his book of photographs made in the north-east of England between 1976 and 1987, it was no coincidence that its dates fitted neatly within those of Margaret Thatcher's terms as leader of the Conservative party and then as prime minister. In 1988 she still had two years left in office, but her transformation of the country was pretty much complete. She had deregulated the financial system, broken the unions, legalised the sale of council houses, cut back the welfare state and shifted the national agenda from a belief in social responsibility to the pursuit of individual wealth."

In Killip's own words, "When I first saw the beach at Lynemouth in January 1976, I recognized the industry above it but nothing else I was seeing. The beach beneath me was full of activity with horses and carts backed into the sea. Men were standing in the sea next to the carts, using small wire nets attached to poles to fish out the coal from the water beneath them. The place confounded time; here the Middle Ages and the twentieth century intertwined."

A part of my better understanding of where I am series.

"In humility there is strength."