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B+W
I
t began in London, 1968,
when a small group of Regent
Street Polytechnic students
decided to form Amber Film
and Photography Collective- an artistic cooperative
that would give voice to
marginalised people largely
from northern England. Almost
half a century later Amber is
now the longest running and
important collective in the UK:
its members and contributors
include key photographers of
the 20th century – such as Chris
Killip, Henri Cartier-Bresson
and Martine Franck – and its
archive holds work that hasshaped the UK documentary
photography genre – like
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen’s Byker
series. For the first time Amber
holds a major retrospective at
Newcastle's Laing Art Gallery to
spotlight cultural, political and
economic shifts in north-east
England over the past 40 years.EXHIBITION OF THE MONTH
Recording how northern England has been affected by de-industrialisation,
photographers of Amber Film and Photography Collective reveala precious piece of recent UK history. A new show spotlights Amber's
contribution to documentary photography. Anna Bonita Evans reports.
NEWS
Jungle Portraits, 1980 © Isabella JedrzejczykAround 150 original prints and
film clips from the collective’s
archive of 20,000 photographs,
12,000 transparencies and 100
films have been chosen for the
exhibition. Curated to highlight
as many different bodies of work
and photographers as possible,
approximately four pictures
have been selected to represent
a complete series. Short clips
of films produced by Amber
members, including Quayside and
In Fading Light, are also played in
the main room of the exhibition.
Divided into four sections
loosely based on different
decades, the show begins with
Collecting Documents of
Working Class Culture (1968 to
1979), leading to Landscapes,
Lives and Struggles (1980 to 1991),
followed by Bringing it all Back
Home (1987 to 1997) and then
ending with Elegies and Renewals
(1998 to 2010). In a separate
room an estimated 60 pictures
taken by international (perhaps
more well-known) documentary
photographers, such as August
Sander, Robert Doisneau and
Weegee, can be found.S
et up at a time when UK
heavy industries were
in decline, Amber dealt
with the post-industrial
experience on a social level.
Recognising northern England
(once home to the thriving
coal, steel and ship industries)
was where the political and
economical climate was changing
most, members of Amber moved
from London to Newcastle-‘Set up at a time when
UK heavy industries
were in decline, Amber
dealt with the post-
industrial experienceon a social level.’