The Side Gallery, Newcastle

Visited the Side Gallery on Friday - Newcastle is such a georgeous city - something I forget until I visit again and I'm reminded.

The Gallery was a bit dissapointing in that I had hoped they'd have some archive material on display but in fact there was just one exhibition and that didn't really relate to my fip. However, there were lots of books, posters and postcards in the shop relating to Sirkka Liisa Kontinen. Her work documenting Byker is one that I particularly admire (see photos above).

In her book "Byker" SLK writes how she was able to gain the trust of the community because she lived amongst them, and further, being a foreigner helped because no one could place her in a particular category because of her accent. She was accepted very quickly which really shows in the work she was able to produce. Quite the reverse of the MO mob in Bolton who were looked upon with suspicion, not least because of their southern accents! I found that when knocking on my neighbours' doors, even if I hadn't seen them before, as soon as I said "I live at number 20" they were okay with me and the project.

Sirkka Liisa is now revisiting Byker for a new documentary work. None of the work was available to view, but the curator said it's planned for publication in 2010.

The Side Gallery has an online collection of over 2000 captioned images and features over 80 bodies of work by more than 40 different photographers. The gallery leaflet says:

"Amber film and photography collective came to the North East of England in 1969 with a commitment to documenting working class communities".