About Us
Film & Photography
Amber's productions, brought together with a catalogue of the work supported, purchased or retrieved as part of the group's engagement with the North of England.
Amber Production
The following list includes films, exhibitions and books produced by the Amber collective, with the earliest works dating from before the group became a formalized partnership.
1968 All You Need Is Dynamite (40min, documentary)
1969 Maybe (10min, documentary)
1969 A Film (8min, animation)
1973 Jellyfish (8min, animation)
1973 Launch (10min, documentary)
1973 High Row (33min, documentary)
1974 Mai (30min, documentary)
1974 The River Project (exhibition & book, incl work by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen & Graham Smith)
1975 Bowes Line (28min, documentary)
1976 Last Shift (17min, documentary)
1976 The Hoppings (exhibition, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen)
1977 Glassworks (20min, documentary)
1978 Laurie (25min, documentary)
1978 That's Not Me (33min, documentary)
1979 Quayside(exhibition & booklet, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen & Graham Smith)
1979 Quayside (16min, documentary)
1980 Tyne Lives (60min, documentary/drama)
1981 The Filleting Machine (45min, drama)
1981 North Tyneside (exhibition, incl work by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Graham Smith)
1983 Keeping Time (57min, documentary/drama)
1983 Byker (exhibition & book, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen)
1983 Byker (53min, documentary/drama)
1983 News from Durham (12min, documentary)
1983 Where Are We Going? (35min, documentary)
1984 Behind the Vote (31 min, documentary)
1984 Beyond the Vote (22min, documentary)
1984 Step by Step (exhibition)
1985 Seacoal (83min, feature film)
1985 Can’t Beat It Alone (45min, documentary)
1985 The Sadler Story (23min, documentary)
1986 Double Vision (60min, documentary/drama)
1986 The Box (10min, animation)
1986 The Privatisation Tapes (6x10min, documentary)
1987 T Dan Smith (85min, feature film)
1987 Shields Stories (10x10min, drama)
1988 Cedarwood Women (exhibition, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen)
1988 Look Me in the Eye (exhibition, Richard Grassick)
1988 From Marks and Spencer to Marx and Engels (57min, documentary)
1989 Step by Step (book, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen)
1989 In Fading Light (103min, feature film)
1991 The Writing in the Sand (45min, documentary)
1991 Dream On (115 min, feature film)
1991 Ramar Goodbye (exhibition, Richard Grassick)
1993 My Finnish Roots (exhibition, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen)
1994 Letters to Katja (57min, documentary)
1994 Unclear Family (exhibition, Richard Grassick)
1995 Eden Valley (95min, feature film)
1995 It’s The Pits (32min, documentary)
1997 The Scar (95/114min, feature film)
1998 People of the Hills (exhibition, Richard Grassick)
1999 Stepping Up (exhibition & book, Richard Grassick)
2000 Writing in the Sand (exhibition & book, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen)
2001 Like Father (95min, feature film)
2001 In the Shadow (exhibition, Richard Grassick)
2003 We Did It Together - So Why do I Feel so Alone? (30min, documentary)
2003 The Coal Coast (exhibition & book, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen)
2005 Post Industrial (exhibition, Richard Grassick)
2005 Making ‘In Fading Light’ (75min, documentary)
2005 Shooting Magpies (80min, feature film)
2006 Making ‘Shooting Magpies’ (62min, documentary)
Documenting the North
The following photographic bodies of work have been collected, produced, commissioned or otherwise supported as part of Amber’s documentation of the North. With some of the work, memory might be a bit hazy, but the descriptions, ‘donated’, ‘loan’, ‘purchased’, and ‘supported’ are as accurate as we can make them. ‘Supported’ includes production within the group, commissions and retainer fees, although purchasing has also often been a way of supporting work.
ANON
Building the Tyne Bridge (retrieval)
Byker, historical (retrieval)
Edwardian Portraits (retrieval)
Glass Plate Collection, Hartlepool (retrieval)
Mauretania (retrieval)
North East Images, various (retrieval)
North Shields Library Prints (retrieval)
North Shields Studio Portraits, 1940s/50s (retrieval)
Smedley’s (retrieval)
Vickers’ Scotswood Archive (retrieval)
BAIRD, K
Northern View, group show (purchased)
BERRY, IAN
Tyneside (purchased)
BIALOBRZESKI, PETER
Unclear Family, 1993 (supported)
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
Give My Regards to Elizabeth (supported)
BIGGS
Ashington Coal Company (retrieval)
BRANDT, BILL
Train Leaving Newcastle upon Tyne, 1934 (purchased)
CARTIER-BRESSON
North East Images, 1979 (donated)
CATMULL, MIK
Shieldfielders (supported)
CHAPMAN, DEAN
Shifting Ground (supported)
Aftermath: Foot & Mouth in Tow Law (supported)
Field’s Chip Shop (supported)
CLEET, JAMES
Arab Riots in South Shields (retrieval)
CONLAN, STEVE
Meadow Well: an English Estate (supported)
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
CRITCHLOW, MIK
Seacoalers (purchased)
Ashington (purchased/supported)
Seafarers (supported)
Bedlington Miners’ Picnic (purchased)
North Blyth (purchased)
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
CROSS, RICHARD
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
CURTIS, TIM
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
DAVIES, JOHN
Cumbrian Landscapes (supported)
Durham Coalfield (supported)
For Druridge, with Isabella Jedrzejczyk (supported)
Urban Dreams (supported)
Signs of Coal - Durham Coalfield Revisited (supported)
DAWSON, YVONNE
James Scott Timberyard (donated)
DODSWORTH, GEORGE
Working the Landscape group show (purchased)
DOLFEN, STEFAN
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
Love of my Choice (supported)
EMEL, TJ
Gateshead (retrieval)
FIGURA, MARTIN
Horden Victory Club (supported)
FORSYTH, JIMMY
Scotswood Road (retrieval)
FRANCK, MARTINE
Northern Survey (supported)
FRYER, PETER
North Blyth (supported)
Coke to Coke (supported)
Let Go (supported)
Smith’s Dock, North Shields (supported)
Peaceable Kingdoms (loan)
Fathers (supported)
Refugees (supported)
The Arab Boarding House (supported)
GAMESTER, STAN
West Allotment (supported)
GARDINER, JIM
Sunderland (supported)
GERMAINE, JULIAN
Steelworks (supported)
GIBSON, JOHN PATTISON
Collection (retrieval)
GILLENS, MARY
Wheatley Hill (retrieval)
GOLDING, MIKE
Collection (purchased/supported)
GRASSICK, RICHARD
Surviving on Darlington's Shop Floors (donated)
Working the Landscape, group show (donated)
NUPE (donated/supported)
Look Me in the Eye (supported)
Ramar Goodbye (supported)
Crook Youth Club Portraits (supported)
Unclear Family, solo show (supported)
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
People of the Hills (supported)
Stepping Up (supported)
In the Shadow (supported)
Post Industrial (supported)
GREENWELL, JANE
Working the Landscape, group show (purchased)
HARDY, BERT
Collection (purchased)
HARRIS, TOMMY
Consett (retrieval)
HARTLEPOOL WOMEN
Working for Change (supported)
HEDGES, NICK
Northern View, group show (purchased)
Fishing Industry (supported)
ITURBIDE, GRACIELA
Belmont Group Day Out (donated)
JARCHÉ, JAMES
Daily Herald Photographs (purchased)
JEDRZEJCZYK, ISABELLA
Urban Landscapes (supported)
Jungle Portraits (supported)
Coalyards (supported)
North Yorkshire Leadmines (purchased)
Northumberland Landscapes (supported)
For Druridge, with John Davies (supported)
Wills’ Factory (supported)
Farms in North Tyneside (supported)
Working it Out (supported)
JOHNSON, MICHELLE
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
KILLIP, CHRIS
Killip Archive (purchased/supported)
Killip Print Collection (purchased/supported)
Wallsend, group show (supported)
People in Power (supported)
Askam & Skinningrove (purchased/supported)
Seacoal (suported)
Skinheads (supported)
KIPPIN, JOHN
Forest (loan)
KONTTINEN, SIRKKA-LIISA
Byker (supported)
River Project, group show (supported)
Documenting the North, 1970s/80s (supported)
Lambton Visual Aids Archive (supported)
The Hoppings (supported)
Quayside, with Graham Smith (supported)
Wallsend, group show (supported)
Interiors,
North Tyneside group show (supported)
Step by Step (supported)
Writing in the Sand (supported)
Mixed Feelings (supported)
My Finnish Roots (supported)
Coal Coast (supported)
Byker Revisited (supported)
KRASSOWSKI, WITOLD
Trotting (supported)
KYNDROVA, DANA
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
LEE, EDGAR
Collection (retrieval)
L'ESPERAT-HEQUET, VERONIQUE
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
Sunniside (supported)
LUSKACOVA, MARKETA
Beaches (supported)
Juvenile Jazz Bands (supported)
North Tyneside, group show (supported)
MACDONALD, IAN
Greatham Creek (purchased)
Quoits (supported)
Tees Estuary (supported)
Schools Project (purchased)
MADDISON, PETE
Working the Landscape, group show (purchased)
MEADOWS, DANIEL
Collection (purchased)
Northern View, group show (purchased)
MURTHA, TISH
Youth Unemployment in Elswick (supported)
Juvenile Jazz Bands (supported)
Scotswood Road Closure (supported)
NORFOLK, SIMON
Goaf (supported)
NORMAN, SALLY-ANN
Farewell Squalor (supported)
PARRY, ROLAND
Collection (retrieval)
PATTISON, KEITH
Easington, August 1984 (purchased)
Every Breath They Take (supported)
PEOPLE’S CENTRE
North Shields (supported)
RAE, BRUCE
Shipbuilding on the Tyne (supported)
Wallsend Foundry (supported)
Wallsend, group show (supported)
Easington: a Durham Mining Village (supported)
REIK, MIRIAM
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
RIGBY, JOHN
Workington & Maryport (purchased)
Images of Youth in Cumbria (purchased)
ROBERTSON, GRACE
Mothers' DayOut (retrieval)
ROBINSON, KAREN
All Dressed Up: Teenage Girls in East Durham (supported)
SINGH, DAYANITA
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
SMITH, DEREK
Middlesbrough (purchased)
Northern View (purchased)
SMITH, EDWIN
Ashington, historical (retrieval)
SMITH, GRAHAM
Skinningrove (donated)
Early Work (donated)
Middlesbrough (supported)
River Project, group show (supported)
North East 1972-76 (supported)
Quayside, with Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (supported)
Wallsend, group show (supported)
North Tyneside, group show (supported)
Consett (supported)
South Bank (supported)
STEELE-PERKINS, CHRIS
Survival Programmes in Britain’s Inner Cities,
group show incl Northern work (purchased)
Hinterland (supported)
STREIT, JINDRICH
The Village is a Global World, Crook (supported)
Unclear Family: Crook Workshop, 1993, group show (supported)
THOMAS, DAVE
Eastgate Cement Works (loan)
Appleby Horse Fair (purchased)
WALLACE, WENDY
Bearpark (supported)
WHEATLEY, LAURIE
Collection (retrieval)
River Project, group show (supported)
Newcastle (supported)
WISE, DAVID
West Hartlepool (supported)