Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (born 1948) is a Finnish photographer who has worked in Britain since the 1960s.[1] Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,[2] National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,[3] Tate[4] and the UK Memory of the World Register.[5]
Konttinen was born in Myllykoski, municipality of Sippola (from 1975 part of the town of Anjalankoski, from 2009 part of the town of Kouvola), 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.[6] Konttinen studied photography in London in the 1960s, and cofounded the Amber collective, which moved to the northeast of England in 1969.[7]
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.[8][9][10] She continued to work there for some time afterwards. This resulted in the book Byker,[7] which in David Alan Mellor's words "bore witness to her intimate embeddedness in the locality".[11] In 1980 she became the first photographer since the Cultural Revolution to have her work exhibited by the British Council in China.[11]
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.[7] The book was an influence for the film Billy Elliot.[12]
Three years of photographing the beach between Seaham and Hartlepool resulted in the series "Coal Coast".[13]
Konttinen later returned to Byker and photographed its new residents in colour.[14]
Konttinen's work is held in the following permanent collections:
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