Diane Arbus  / Martine Franck / Graciela Iturbide / Izabela Jedrzejczyk / Laura Junka-Aikio / Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen / Susan Meiselas / Tish Murtha / Grace Robertson

Stills is excited to present a selection of photographs from The AmberSide Collection, a unique archive that continues to grow out of the documentary production, commissioning, exhibition and touring work of Newcastle-based Amber Film & Photography Collective. The group established itself in North East England in 1969 and opened Side Gallery in 1977.

The display at Stills highlights a selection of AmberSide’s holdings of photographs by women photographers. Key documentary works by founder Amber member Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, by Tish Murtha and Izabela Jedrzejczyk, both of whom worked at Side Gallery, share the walls with those of celebrated international photographers, such as Graciela Iturbide, who toured Konttinen’s Byker in Mexico, and Susan Meiselas, whose Central American work was toured by Side in the early 1980s.

The exhibition illustrates AmberSide’s historic and ongoing commitment to the best in documentary, showcasing photography that tells stories of marginalized and threatened people and communities, whether they are from the North East of England or anywhere else in the world.

This exhibition is part of an annual series of displays at Stills aimed at celebrating the diversity and richness of photographic objects held within archives and collections in the UK.