Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen is a Finnish-British photographer who has worked in Britain since the 1960s. Born in Myllykoski, Finland, Konttinen moved to London to study film in the late 1960s at the Regent Street Polytechnic. In 1968, she co-founded the Amber Film and Photography Collective, which moved to Newcastle in 1969.
Konttinen’s series Byker (1969–1983) and Writing in the Sand (1978–1998) document the devastating impact of Newcastle’s East End redevelopment on the local community alongside the moments of joy and escapism that the beaches of Whitley Bay and Tynemouth provided.
From 1969 Konttinen lived in Byker, and for seven years photographed and interviewed the residents of this area of terraced houses until her own house was demolished. By the time Konttinen arrived at Byker, the neighbourhood was already scheduled for demolition, to make way for the Byker Wall Estate. She continued to work there for some years. This resulted in the book Byker, which in David Alan Mellor’s words ‘bore witness to her intimate embeddedness in the locality’. Today, this body of work along with her other photography and Amber’s films is inscribed in the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register as being of ‘outstanding national value and importance to the United Kingdom', a profound account of the working class and marginalised communities in the North East of England.
In 1980 Konttinen became the first photographer since the Cultural Revolution to have her work exhibited by the British Council in China. Her next project Step by Step, was a study of girls and their mothers at a dance school in North Shields, and their later lives after leaving the school.
This series became a heavy influence in Lee Hall's development and writing for his play Dancer, which later became the cult coming-of-age film Billy Elliot.
Her other long-term projects include Byker Revisited and The Coal Coast plus related films.
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's work is in numerous private and public collections, including the Tate.
