Born in Myllykoski, Finland, in 1948, Sirkka began taking photographs aged twelve, inspired by her aunt Oili, a skilful amateur photographer. She studied film making at the Regent Street Polytechnic film school in London where, with Murray Martin and a number of other fellow students, she formed the Amber Collective.
In 1969, the collective moved to Newcastle, with a commitment to documenting working class communities, and in 1977 established the Side Photographic Gallery.
Sirkka is perhaps best known for her 1983 book entitled Byker, a seminal portrait of the terraced Newcastle community, eventually bulldozed to make way for the Byker Wall. She continued to photograph the people of the new Byker between 2004-2009, resulting in the book Byker Revisited and the film Today I'm with you. In addition, four films, Keeping Time, Byker, The Writing In The Sand and Letters to Katja, form part of her work.
Step by Step was another of Sirkka’s long-term commitments, and explored the dreams and realities of a group of mothers and daughters at a North Shields dancing school. Other key works include Writing in the Sand, which reflects the vibrant life of North East beaches while her work, The Coal Coast, captures the terrible beauty of the Durham coastline.
The 2011 UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register, inscribes Konttinen's photography and Amber's films as being of "outstanding national value and importance to the United Kingdom." newcastlegateshead
All images © Sirkka-Liisa
Konttinen
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