The wider River Project brought together filmmakers, photographers, writers and visual artists in a collaborative exploration of the industrial Tyne. Alongside Konttinen, photographers Graham Smith and Laurie Wheatley contributed to the stills work. Tom Pickard and Rodney Pybus produced new writing, Peter Engel created drawings and visual responses, and Amber Films made Launch and High Row as part of the project. The exhibition toured community venues on both banks of the Tyne.

Struggling to find a Newcastle venue willing to show socially engaged photography, the group’s experience with River Project was instrumental in Amber’s decision to open its own gallery. In 1975, it purchased the Quayside premises that would become Side.

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen is a Finnish-born documentary photographer who has chronicled working-class life in North East England since the late 1960s.

A co-founder of the Amber Film and Photography Collective, her acclaimed work, including Byker and Step by Step, offer significant portrayals of the lives of everyday people in the North East. In 2011 her photography was inscribed onto the UNESCO Memory of the World Register as of national significance to the UK due to her embedded practice and historically vital portrayals of local communities. In 2025 Konttinen was awarded an MBE in the 2025 New Year’s Honours list for her services to photography.