Sirkka - Liisa Konttinen

I've spent some time looking at the work of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, particularly her work,  Byker Revisited, which resonates with me for a number of reasons. Firstly, the concept of documenting a terraced community through living within the community over a period of years (I lived in  a similar area in inner Manchester in the early 1970s). What better way of understanding and responding to what you see before you and building trust and friendship with the community that you live within and want to record. 

Secondly, I have enjoyed and learnt a lot from looking at good black and white images during this course, particularly street photography. Her way of working reminds me of Chris Killip's work in the North East and Shirley Baker in Salford in the 1960s and 1980s.

© Sikka-Liisa Konttinen / Amber Collective

 

© Sikka-Liisa Kontinen / Amber Collective 

Konttinen's first foray into Byker was in the late 1960s. I recently came across a short Youtube clip (1) taken from a BBC4 documentary (2) on her work during that time ( no longer available on BBC iPlayer  unfortunately ) which gives some insight into her work at that time:

 http://youtu.be/1-JYlo4VcKs

Looking at her later work Byker Revisited made me revisit my thinking regarding my Hot Walls project - how I might capture the artist within their studio.

Byker Revisited records Konttinen's response to her return to Byker in 2005. Not surprisingly she found some  significant changes. And interestingly her original 1960s black and white images were being used to help the immigrants and asylum seekers who had settled in Byker understand the place that was now their home; to show them the history of the place that they had come to.

I would like to have seen the BBC Four film noted above.From its description it covers this second journey :

'In 2005, Sirkka returned. The visionary Byker Wall Estate that replaced the original terraced streets was to have rehoused the community intact, but inevitably didn't.

This new film follows her as she negotiates a photographic journey through its now multicultural communities - building a portrait of the estate out of her comically chaotic portrait sessions and the arresting photographs, stories and negotiations that flow from them'. (2)

Her response to what she came across was to capture the people of Byker again, in colour and in a more collaborative way. She asked her subjects how they would like to present themselves i.e. what they would have in their picture if they had only one image to show the rest of the world.

 

Tengis 2007 © Sikka-Liisa Kontinen / Amber Collective 

Matt McCann's article in the New York Times provides a very useful insight here (3) at 

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/bringing-color-to-newcastle/

 

Najla,from Lebanon 2008 © Sikka-Liisa Kontinen /Amber Collective

It was this posed rather than ad hoc approach that made me wonder whether the same approach might work for portraying artists within their studio.The images below are a sample of this...

P1036: F4.5 @ 1/125  24mm  ISO 800

P1034: F5 @ 1/60  24mm ISO 1600

P1033: F4.5 @ 1/125  24mm ISO 1600

P1037: F5.6 @ 1/200  24mm ISO 1600

  

Rightly or wrongly,at the end of the day, I felt the images too static to meet the client's brief.


(1) Old Byker ( user-generated content online ) Creat. stephenles. 13/10/2011, 6mins 57secs   http://youtu.be/1-JYlo4VcKs
 (Accessed 13 January 2016 )

(2) Today I'm With You( television programme )  Dir. Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen BBC,UK September 2010, BBC 4. 60 mins  ( not currently available on BBC iPlayer )

(3)McCann,M.(2013) Bringing Colour to Newcastle. New York Times. 8 Feb. Available from 
 http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/bringing-color-to-newcastle/  
(Accessed 12 January 2016)