Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (b. 1948) is a Finnish-British photographer and a founding member of the Amber Collective; a group of social documentary photographers and filmmakers who, for over fifty years, have devoted themselves to long term engagement with the working class and marginalized communities in the north east of England. Konttinen’s work celebrates the resilience, humor, passions and pastimes of those around her.
Solo exhibitions of Konttinen’s work have been presented in China, Finland, France, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, the United States, and the UK: most notably at the inauguration of the Tate Modern’s Switch House in London. In addition, more 40 years ago, Konttinen’s Byker project toured the People’s Republic of China, marking the first British cultural exchange with China after the Cultural Revolution. Konttinen’s photographs returned to China in 2015 as part of a traveling group exhibition.
In 2011, Konttinen’s photographs along with Amber's films were inscribed in the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register as an archive of national cultural significance.