OurSide: A Documentary Toolkit

Documentary photography is more than a record. It is a way of questioning, of deciding what will be seen and remembered. It is shaped by choices about where to look, who to listen to, and how to show what is found. 

The works in the AmberSide Collection were made over decades in the North East and across the UK, they trace connections between work and home, industry and community, resilience and change. Each project carries its own story, and together they form part of a larger history of how everyday and working-class communities have been documented. 

OurSide: A Documentary Toolkit uses the AmberSide Collection as a starting point. We ask you to think about documentary and reflect on how photographers have engaged with people and places, and invite you to respond in the present. Your answers, experiences and perspectives are needed as we expand on this tradition of community engagement and thoughtful storytelling.  

This call out is the workshop phase of a new documentary toolkit. It is a resource in progress, built for the next generation of documentarian. It will bring together ideas, reflections and techniques, showing how trust is built, and how personal experience can connect with the ethics and responsibilities of telling real stories. 

Your contributions will help shape this toolkit. You can respond by using the link below, or share your thoughts by email at [email protected]. 

Every response becomes part of the conversation about how we want to be remembered in the future and how our lives should be captured. 

The aim is simple but vital: to bring the means of recording and representing our communities to those who know them best, and to equip new documentary storytellers with the tools to do their work well.