The photographs were found in the early 1970s by Brian Mills and Amber co-founder Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen in an abandoned second-hand clothes shop on Prudhoe Street, North Shields. The door had been left open and Sirkka recalled the prints lying strewn across the floor, with more discovered in a back room and under the stairs. Why they had been left there for so long remains a mystery. An exhibition was later assembled by Mills, a friend and collaborator of the early Amber collective. He ran Newcastle Bookshop, an early tenant when Amber bought its Quayside premises, and in the late 1970s worked with Murray Martin in the clandestine Quayside Action Group. Many of the slide sets in the Visual Culture section of this site came from publications he acquired as a bookseller.

One sitter has been identified. Cecil “Cliff” Sealy (spelt “Sealey” on the reverse of his portrait) was recognised by his great nephew Mark Sealy, director of Autograph ABP. Mark, who spent much of his youth on Tyneside and has collaborated with Side on several projects, confirmed Cliff as the reason his family moved to the North East. A merchant seaman from Barbados, Cliff lived in North Shields from the 1940s until his death in the early 1970s.

If you recognise a face in these portraits, we’d love to hear from you. You can reach out to the Side archive team using our Contact Form.