Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen


Sirkka-Liisa Roberts is a Finnish photographer who has worked in Britain since the 1960s. Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Tate and the UK Memory of the World Register.

Life and work

Konttinen was born in Myllykoski, municipality of Sippola, Finland in 1948. Konttinen became interested in photography at the age of 12 and was a member of a photography group in a nearby town. Intending to pursue photography as a career, she was apprenticed to a fashion photographer in Helsinki for a year. Konttinen studied photography in London in the 1960s, and cofounded the Amber collective, which moved to the northeast of England in 1969.
From 1969 Konttinen lived in Byker, and for about a decade photographed and interviewed the residents of this area of terraced houses until her own house was demolished. She continued to work there for some time afterwards. This resulted in the book Byker, which in David Alan Mellor's words "bore witness to her intimate embeddedness in the locality". In 1980 she became the first photographer since the Cultural Revolution to have her work exhibited by the British Council in China.
Konttinen's next project was a study of girls attending dance schools in North Shields, their mothers, and the schools. The book Step by Step came from this. The book was an influence for the film Billy Elliot.
Three years of photographing the beach between Seaham and Hartlepool resulted in the series "Coal Coast".
Konttinen later returned to Byker and photographed its new residents in colour.

Publications

  • Byker. London: Jonathan Cape, 1983..
  • *Byker. Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 1985..
  • *Byker. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2022.. Revised and expanded edition.
  • Step by Step. Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 1989..
  • Writing in the Sand: On the Beaches of North East England. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2001..
  • *Écrit dans le sable: sur les plages du Nord-Est de l'Angleterre. Paris: Schultz, 2000..
  • *Skrivet i sanden: på sandstränderna i nordöstra England. Stockholm: Schultz Forlag, 2000..
  • *Hiekkaan kirjoitettu: Koillis-Englannin rannoilla. Oulu: Kustantamo Pohjoinen, 2000..
  • *Writing in the Sand: On the Beaches of North East England. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2025.. Revised and expanded edition.
  • The Coal Coast. Newcastle: Amberside, 2003..
  • Byker Revisited. Newcastle: Northumberland University Press, 2009..
  • Thomas Kennedy. Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. Tate Photography. London: Tate, 2022..

Exhibitions

  • Documents of the North East, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 1977
  • Photographs from the Beaches, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 1978
  • North Tyneside, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 1981
  • Byker, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 1983
  • Cedarwood Woman, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 1988
  • Step by Step, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 1989; touring, 1990, 1992
  • The Writing in the Sand, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 1991; touring 1993
  • Dream On, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 1992
  • My Finnish Roots, Side Gallery, Newcastle and touring, 1993, 1994
  • Quayside, Side Gallery, Newcastle and touring, 1993
  • Writing in the Sand, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 2000
  • Coalfield Stories, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 2002/3
  • Coal Coast, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, 2003
  • Coalfield Stories, Photofusion, London, 2005/6
  • Byker Revisited, Side Gallery, Newcastle, 2009
  • Byker, L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, 2013
  • Step by Step, L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York City, 2017
  • Living Cities, Tate Modern, London, 2017. Included 17 photographs by Konttinen.
  • Women by Women exhibition curated by Konttinen as part of Idea of North exhibition, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, 2018

Awards

Collections

Konttinen's work is held in the following permanent collections: