The photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen received an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to photography in the New Year's Honours announced earlier this week. She was also recognised with a Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship in November.
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen has worked in Britain since the 1960s. Born in Finland, Konttinen moved to London to study film in the late 1960s at the Regent Street Polytechnic. In 1968, she co-founded the Amber Film and Photography Collective, which moved to Newcastle in 1969. Konttinen’s series Byker (1969–1983) and Writing in the Sand (1978–1998) document the devastating impact of Newcastle’s East End redevelopment on the local community alongside the moments of joy and escapism that the beaches of Whitley Bay and Tynemouth provided. In 1980 Konttinen became the first photographer since the Cultural Revolution to have her work exhibited by the British Council in China. Her next project Step by Step, was a study of girls and their mothers at a dance school in North Shields, and their later lives after leaving the school. This series became a heavy influence in Lee Hall's development and writing for his play Dancer, which later became the cult coming-of-age film Billy Elliot. Her other long-term projects include Byker Revisited and The Coal Coast plus related films.
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's work is in numerous collections and, she has been seen in a number of recent exhibtiions in Britain, Europe and the United States in recent years. She is included in Tate's The 1980s on show until 5 May. She continues to work and her earlier projects are rightly recognised as seminal and significant documentary photography.
Sirkka-Liisa ROBERTS (Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen) Photographer. For services to Photography (North Shields, Tyne and Wear)
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen OBE HonFRPS
See: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-year-honours-list-2025 and https://rps.org/about/awards/the-rps-awards-2024/rps-awards-2024-recipients/
Image: Portrait of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen by Liz Hingley
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