#58 CAMERA Book Review: Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen - North East

Sirkka Liisa Konttinen's North East brings together photographs from the long term documentary projects she produced across North East England after settling in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1969 as a founder member of the Amber Film and Photography Collective. Drawn from decades of sustained engagement with the region, the work reflects her commitment to documenting communities through extended personal relationships rather than short assignments. Her photographs encompass working class neighbourhoods, industrial landscapes, beaches, family life and public celebrations, creating a visual record of social and cultural change across the North East during the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. The photographs are closely connected to her major bodies of work, including Byker, Step by Step, The Coal Coast, Byker Revisited and Writing in the Sand.

Konttinen's approach is characterised by long term immersion within the communities she photographs, allowing her to record everyday life with remarkable familiarity and trust. Rather than concentrating on individual events or moments of historical significance, she documents the rhythms of ordinary life through portraits, street scenes and observations of changing landscapes. Her work avoids nostalgia while acknowledging the profound economic and social transformation experienced across the region following industrial decline. North East reflects more than five decades of documentary practice and stands as a significant photographic record of the people, places and communities that have shaped the identity of North East England.

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