CHRONOLOGY
1948 Born in Myllykoski, Finland
1960 Inspired by her aunt, starts taking photographs at age 12
1960s Studies filmmaking at the Regent Street Polytechnic film school in London
Co-founds the Amber Collective; dedicated to documenting the working class and marginalized communities in film and photography
1969 Amber Collective moves to Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England
Konttinen moves to Byker, a working class district of Newcastle upon Tyne, and documents the community over seven years
1971-72 Photographs The Hoppings, the largest traveling fair in Europe
Returns to photograph the fair in 1976 and again in 1980
1972-74 Recipient of the Northern Arts/Nortern Gasboard Fellowship in Creative Photography
1973-98 Documents life on the beaches in the North East
A film of her photographs, The Writing in the Sand, is released in 1991 and the book is published in 2001
1977 Side Gallery, dedicated to socially engaged documentary photography, is established by the Amber Collective
1982-88 Konttinen photographs the lives of mothers and daughters at a local dancing school
A film titled Keeping Time is released in 1988 and Step by Step, the book, is published the following year
1991 Spends a year in her native Finland, where she produces a series titled, My Finnish Roots
1994 Letters to Katja, an Amber film, is made with her husband, Peter Roberts, about her year in Finland with their daughter, Katja
1998-02 Explores the legacy of the coal mining industry in her series on the Black
Beaches of County Durham. The Coal Coast, a book on the landscape, is published in 2003
2000 Publication Writing in the Sand is released; about young and old, human and canine who gather on the beaches of northeastern England
2003-08 Konttinen returns to Byker and creates portraits of the multicultural communities living in the re-developed Byker Estate:
The film about this new project, Today I’m With You, and the book, Byker Revisited, are both released in 2009
2011 The 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”
2014 Nominated A Local Hero by the people of Tyneside: a bronze plaque honoring her is installed on the “Walk of Fame” by the River Tyne
2016 Wins a Journal Culture Award for “Special Contribution to North East Arts and Culture”
Keynote Speaker at the Urban Encounters conference at Tate Modern, London
2018 Konttinen curates Women by Women, for the multi-platform Great Exhibition of the North festival, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK. This presentation was highlighted as one of the top 10 exhibitions in Europe, summer 2018 (The Guardian).
2022 Receives honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Photographs of Byker, 1969-1978 | Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, UK
2020 Selected Works | 764 Madison Avenue (pop-up), Madison Avenue Saturdays, New York, NY
Writing in the Sand | L. Parker Stephenson, New York, NY
2019 Another Beginning | Byker Community Centre, Byker, UK
2017 The Coal Coast | Side Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Step by Step | Krakow Photomonth Festival, Krakow, Poland
Step by Step: Mothers and Daughters at a Small Dancing School | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
2016 - 17 Byker / Living Cities | Inaugural installation at the Switch House Tate Modern, London, UK
2015 Coal Staithes | St. Mary’s Cultural Centre, Gateshead, UK
The Hoppings & Byker Revisited | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
2013 Byker | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
2012 Captured in Amber | Laterna Magica, Helsinki, Finland
L’instant capturé | Carrê d’Art Nimês and Studio Prisme, Alés, France
2011 Writing in the Sand | Pohjanmaan Valokuvakeskus, Lapua, Finland
Writing in the Sand | K.H Renlund’s Museum, Kokkola, Finland
2009 Byker Revisited | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
2003 The Coal Coast | Baltic, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
2000 Writing in the Sand | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
Writing in the Sand | UK National Film Theatre, London, UK
Writing in the Sand | Museum of Photography of Moderna Museet Stockholm, Sweden
1997 Writing in the Sand | Mediawave International Festival of Visual Arts, Győr, Hungary
1994 My Finnish Roots | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK (travels regionally)
1993 Writing in the Sand | Gothenburg International Film Festival, Gothenburg, Sweden
Writing in the Sand | Le Festival du Film Britannique de Dinard, Dinard, France
Writing in the Sand | Tatranska Galeria, Poprad, Slovakia
1992 Writing in the Sand | Galleria Nykyaika, Tampere, Finland
Writing in the Sand | Finnfoto, Helsinki, Finland
1991 Writing in the Sand | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
1989 Byker | Ediciones Toldeo, Mexico City, Mexico
Step by Step | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh, UK Pavilion, Leeds, UK
1985 Byker | Hippolyte, Helsinki, Finland
Step By Step | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK (travels nationally)
1984 Step By Step | Ffotogallery, Cardiff, UK
1983 Byker | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
Byker | The Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
1981 Hoppings | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK (travels regionally)
1980 Byker | The Peking Art Gallery, Bejing, China (tours The People’s Republic of China)
1979 Byker | Municipal Theatre of Kronigen, Netherlands
1974 Photographs by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, The Northern Arts & Northern Gasboard Fellow in Creative Photography ‘72 - ‘74 |
Bede Gallery, Jarrow, UK
1971 Newcastle and Byker in Camera | Bede Gallery, Jarrow, UK (travels regionally)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Photo City: How Images Shape the Urban World | Michelin Design Gallery, V&A, Dundee, Scotland
2023 A story of Images | Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France
This is Britain: Photographs from the 1970s and 1980s | National Gallery, Washington, DC, USA
2022 Facing Britain: British Documentary Photography since the 1960s | Museum of Photography, Krakow, Poland
Facing Britain: British Documentary Photography since the 1960s | Mönchehaus Museum Goslar, Goslar, Germany
2021 -22 After Industry: Communities in Northern England 1960s-80s | Tate Britain, London, UK
Facing Britain: British Documentary Photography since the 1960s | Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany
2021 Open House | Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, UK
Seaside: Photographed | Gundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, UK
Youth Rising | Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Seaside: Photographed | Newlyn Art Gallery, UK
2019-20 Women Photographers from the AmberSide Collection | Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
2019 Home Sweet Home 1970-2018: The British Home, A Political History | Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France
Home Sweet Home 1970-2018: The British Home, A Political History | Institute de la photographie, Lille, France
Seaside: Photographed | Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK
A Room for Solace – An Exhibition of Domestic Interior | curated by Alec Soth, New York, NY
The Photography Show | presented by AIPAD, Pier 94, New York, NY
2018-19 Portraits | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
2018 Women by Women | BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
About the North: Imagined Dialogues | Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Coast to Coast | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
Traces of Coal | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs at The Photography Show, presented by AIPAD, Pier 94, NY
2017 Recent Acquisitions | Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library, NY
Photo London | Michael Hoppen Gallery, Somerset House, London, UK
2016 Childhoods | Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Faces From Places | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
2015 For Ever Amber | Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Work Rest and Play, Half a Century of British Photography | Art Gallery, Chengdu, China
Work Rest and Play, Half a Century of British Photography | Misheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Work Rest and Play, Half a Century of British Photography | OCT-Loft, Shenzhen, China
2014 The Photography Show (AIPAD) | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, Park Avenue Armory, New York,
2013 PGH Photo | UnSmoke Systems Artspace, Pittsburgh, PA
The Photography Show (AIPAD) | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY
Country Matters | James Hyman Gallery, London, UK
London Art Fair: Photo 50 | Business Design Centre, Islington, UK
2012 A Tad Bit Strange and Somewhat Surreal: Photographs from the ‘60s and ‘70s | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
The Photography Show (AIPAD) | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY
2011 Noorderlicht Photo Festival “Metropolis” Groningen, Netherlands
2006 Making History | Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
2005 Coastal | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
River: Documenting the Tyne | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
2003 The Fleeting Moment Between Photography and Cinema | Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
2002-05 Coalfield Stories | Photofusion, London, UK
Coalfield Stories | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
Coalfield Stories | DLI Museum, Durham, UK
Coalfield Stories | Mac, The Centre for Birmingham, UK
2000 Coalfield Stories, New British Photo Realism | Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek in Göttingen, Germany
Amber 1969-2001 | Centro de Cultura Antiguo Instituto at Gijón, Spain
1997-00 Puiden kansa, part of Juuret Ja Siivet, Roots and Wings | Hämeenlinnan Taidemuseo, Finland (travels to major Finnish museums)
1992 Kolme siirtolaiskuvaajaa | Pohjoinen Valokuvakeskus, Oulu, Finland
1982 Ten Contemporary British Photographers | Creative Photography Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Ten Contemporary British Photographers | The Light Factory, Charlotte, NC
1981 North Tyneside Survey | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
1979 Quayside | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK (travels regionally)
1978 Beaches | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
1977 Documents in the North East | Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
1974 Photographs of the North East | Serpentine Summer Show 3, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MONOGRAPHS
2022 Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. Byker. UK: Dewi Lewis
Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. Introduction by and interview with Thomas Kennedy. Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Tate
2017 Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa, In the Picture, Tate Etc., Spring edition
2009 Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. Byker Revisited. UK: Northumbria Press
2003 Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. The Coal Coast. UK: Amberside
2000 Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. Writing in the Sand. UK: Dewi Lewis/Amberside
Hiekkaan kirioitettu. Finland: Kustannus Pohjoinen / Amberside
Skrivet I sanden. Sweden: Barbro Schultz Verlag / Amberside
Écrit dans le sable. France: Barbro Schultz / Amberside
1989 Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. Step by Step. UK: Bloodaxe Books in association with Amberside
1988 Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. Byker. Newcastle upon Tyne: BloodAxe/Amberside (second edition)
1985 Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. Byker. Newcastle upon Tyne: BloodAxe Books
1983 Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. Byker. UK: Jonathan Cape
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
2022 Kennedy, Thomas, Tate Photography: Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. Tate Modern, London
2021 Harrison, Graham and Goertz, Ralph, Facing Britain: British Documentary Photography since the 1960s. Walther König, Köln
2019 Williams, Val and Shepherdson, Karen, Seaside: Photographed. Thames & Hudson
2018 Warner, Marigold, British Journal of Photography, June 2018
Grieve, Michael, Interview, British Journal of Photography, February 2018
2016 Whetstone, David, Photos of Byker one of the first attractions in Tate Modern’s new building, Chronicle Live, June 2016
Sooke, Alastair, What to see in the New Tate, The Telegraph
Wilson, Siona, A Pavilion of One’s Own, Artforum, February 2016
Brydon, Al, “Endframe: David with daughters, 2008 by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen,” On Landscape
2015 AmberSide. For Ever Amber. UK: Pressision, Leeds
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
AmberSide Collection Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Centre George Pompidou (film: The Writing in the Sand), Paris, France
Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland
La Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Musée de Grenoble, France
Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, UK
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Tate Modern, London, UK
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
FILMOGRAPHY
2017 Song for Billy, Amber films (17 mins)
2009 Today I’m With You, Amber film (54 mins)
1994 Letters to Katja, Amber Film (53 mins)
1991 The Writing in the Sand, Amber film (43 mins)
1988 Keeping Time, Amber film (57 mins)
1983 Byker, Amber film (53 mins)
SELECTED FILM SCREENINGS
2018 Song for Billy | Tampere International Short Film Festival, Finland
2017 Song For Billy | Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Song For Billy | Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Germany
Keeping Time | Krakow Photomonth Festival, Krakow, Poland
2016 Song for Billy | In collaboration with So Percussion, premiers as a live scored version titled, From a Darker Sea,
as part of Forma / East Durham Creates, St. John’s Church, Seaham, UK (project travels in US and UK)
2012 Byker | Le Bal, Paris, France
The Writing in the Sand | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
The Writing in the Sand | Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
The Writing in the Sand | Goethe Institut, Washington, DC
2010 The Writing in the Sand | PhotoFilm, Tate Modern, London, UK
2009 The Writing in the Sand | Quand La Photo Infiltre Le Cinéma, PhotoFilm, Cinemathèque Quebecoise Montréal, Canada
2008 The Writing in the Sand | All That Cinema, Viva FotoFilm, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
2007 The Writing in the Sand | Viva Fotofilm, Kino Caligari, Wiesbadener Fototage, Wiesbaden, Germany
The Writing in the Sand | Viva Fotofilm, Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen, Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany
The Writing in the Sand | Fotofilme, Filmhaus Nürnberg, Germany
2006 Writing in the Sand | Fotofilme, Kino Arsenal Berlin, in cooperation with the Museum of Photography Berlin
(European Month of Photography), Berlin, Germany
The Writing in the Sand | Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
The Writing in the Sand | Metropolis Kinematek, Hamburg, Germany
The Writing in the Sand | Academy of Media Art Cologne and Dokumentarfilminitiave NRW, Cologne, Germany
2000 The Writing in the Sand | The National Film Theatre, London, UK as part of Amber Forever International Film Tour (supported by the British Council)
“Cycle de films: Le documentaire britannique”, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
1997 The Writing In The Sand | Mediawave International Festival of Visual Arts, Gyor, Hungary
The Writing in the Sand | Collectif Image Photofestival, Geneva, Switzerland
1995 Byker and Letters to Katja | Celebrating International Film Collectives, Margaret Mead Film Festival, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA
1994 Letters to Katja and The Writing In The Sand | Toured by the British Council in Christchurch and Auckland, New Zealand
FILM AWARDS
Byker
1985 The Grand Prix, Tampere International Short Film Festival, Finland
1985 Premio Documental, Festival Internacional De Cinema De Troia, Portugal
1984 The International Critics Prize and the Special Prize of the City of Leipzig,
International Film Festival of Leipzig, Germany
The Writing in the Sand
1992 Le Prix du Documentaire Européan, Cinéma Du Réel, Paris, France
1992 Grand Prix, The City of Melbourne Award for Best Film, Australia
1991 The Environment Award of Northern Electric Arts Awards, UK
OTHER ACCOLADES
2022 Bestowed with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK