Tees Estuary
Ian Macdonald
Photographic
A photographic study of the Tees Estuary in the early 1980s, capturing the stark beauty and tension between industrial structures and the surrounding natural landscape.
Amberside Collection
The AmberSide Collection is a vast body of documentary photography and film dedicated to preserving the working-class experience. Featuring over 20,000 photographs and 100 films, it captures social and industrial life in the North East of England and beyond, with contributions from both local and internationally renowned photographers and filmmakers.
Founded in 1968 by Murray Martin, the Amber Film & Photography Collective set out to create a lasting record of working-class culture. The collection includes works documenting key aspects of everyday life, social struggles, and industrial change. It also features historic projects such as The Building of the Tyne Bridge and the photography of Jimmy Forsyth.
Side’s values are rooted in a concern for working-class, marginalised, or threatened lives and landscapes, both in the UK and abroad. Housed at Side and safeguarded by the AmberSide Trust, the collection remains a vital cultural resource, ensuring that the social history of the North East and wider working-class communities is preserved for future generations.
The Art of Shipbuilding (2017)
Amber Films
Film and Video
A 2017 photofilm by Amber bringing together shipyard poetry, painting, photography and film to reflect on the community, memory and artistry of Tyneside shipbuilding.
The Bamboozler (2007)
Amber Films
Film and Video
A film about Tyneside percussionist Bruce Arthur, the vast collection of instruments he left behind, and the friends who preserve his legacy through music, creativity, and the joy of percussion.
Film and Video
Hand-drawn animation by Judy Tomlinson, made during her time with the Amber Collective - testament to Amber’s broader interest in representing overlooked lives with care and imagination.
The Coal Coast
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen
Photographic
Colour photographs of Durham’s post-industrial shoreline, developed between 1998-2002, capturing the haunting beauty and environmental legacy of its coal mining past.
The Filleting Machine (1981)
Amber Films | Tom Hadaway
Film and Video
Amber Film's first drama, The Filleting Machine is an adaptation of Tom Hadaway's play of the same name. It explores the tensions within a working-class family in a North Sheild's fishing community at the end of the 1970s.
The Hoppings
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen
Photographic
Photographed in the early 1970s, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen’s The Hoppings captures the rich visual culture of Europe’s largest travelling fair on Newcastle’s Town Moor.
The Last Days
Aidan Doyle
Photographic
Aidan Doyle’s photography documents the final coastal collieries of the North East in the early 1990s, as coal mining in the region came to a close.
The Launch of the Rio Delta (1980s)
Amber Films
Film and Video
Unfinished Projects
Unused footage from the late 1980s documents the launch of a boat built by a shipyard worker on the Meadow Well Estate in North Shields, using materials taken from the yard.
The Mauretania
Various
Photographic
The building of the Mauretania, launched in 1906, photographed by mostly unknown photographers, capturing the intricate craftsmanship and monumental scale of the project
Visual Culture
Slide sets of original photography & copied imagery, an extraordinary library originally developed in the 1970s & 80s for higher education: a rich and surprising celebration of C19th & C20th iconography.
Licensing & Usage Requests
Photographic exhibitions, videos, clips, trailers and each month's featured film are free. For personal use Amber's feature dramas, feature documentaries and film shorts are available as pay per view. See details of our Educational Screening Licence or contact us.