Byker is an intimate portrait of a community faced with redevelopment.
When Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen came to the North East of England in 1969 as a founder member of Amber, she set up home in Byker, a working class part of Newcastle upon Tyne. As she began to document the terraced community, she became aware of the plans for its demolition, to make way for the building of the Byker Wall, designed by architect Ralph Erskine.
This lent urgency to her work, which continued over until the early 1980s and the completion of the new estate.
In 1981 Amber began work on the film. Drawing on Sirkka’s images and interviews, on documentary footage and dramatisation, it evokes an entire era in British working class life.
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen: Byker
Category: Photographer Monographs & Art Books
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Author: Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen
Publisher: Dewi Lewis Publishing
Publication Date:
2022
Print Length: 160 pages
Language: English
Price: paid
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