Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (b. 1948) is a Finnish-British photographer who has lived and worked in the UK since the 1960s. Based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne since 1969, Konttinen co-founded the Amber Film and Photography Collective.
Girl on a Spacehopper, Byker, 1971. © Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, courtesy AmberSide / L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, NY.
Konttinen's Byker (1969–1983) is a modern classic of photography. The black-and-white series documents the devastating impact of Newcastle’s East End redevelopment on the local community, alongside moments of joy and escapism on the nearby beaches of Whitley Bay and Tynemouth.
From 1969 Konttinen lived in Byker, and for seven years she photographed and interviewed the people who lived there, until her own house was demolished to make way for the Byker Wall Estate. She continued to work there for some time afterwards photographing the close-knit community. Byker, 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'.
