OCA preloader logo
Amber Online photography collection reviewed by OCA Jose Navarro

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

Amber Online thumb

Amber Online


Every so often, while doing research for the OCA, I come across learning resources that catch my attention and that I add to my bank of teaching materials. These are primarily to do with documentary, my own area of interest. One such resource is the photographic collection on Amber Online. The portfolios in the collection are so interesting that I thought I would share the finding with the OCA community.
Amber Online is the website of the Amber film and photography collective from Newcastle. They have built up a significant photographic collection that covers diverse thematic and stylistic documentary approaches. On Amber’s online photographic collection you will find documentary work of great visual and historical value. There are several bodies of work covering aspects of life in northern England in the 80’s such as seacoal gatherers in Northumberland or shipbuilding on the Tyne. As well as traditional B&W documentary photography from well-known icons of photography such as Sander, Weegee or the FSA photographer Russell Lee, you will also find contemporary colour documentary such as that of the German photographer Peter Bialobrzeski.
Bialobrzeski’s Give my Regards to Elizabeth, a visual account of his 90’s journey in England, belongs to a very British documentary tradition best exemplified by the work of Paul Reas (Flogging a Dead Horse), Anna Fox (Workstations) or Martin Parr.
One collection in particular that captured my imagination is Graciela Iturbide’s body of work on Juchitan, a small village in Mexico’s state of Oaxaca. Iturbide’s photographs are so surreal that they seem to trigger a sort of visual psychotropic effect.
Have a look at Amber Online if you haven’t done so yet. It’s well worth a relaxed web visit and you will learn about many different strategies for doing documentary work.


Posted by author: Jose

6 thoughts on “Amber Online

  • Very nice one Jose, just as I’m starting to research Assessment 5 for TAoP, just the job, thanks very much.

  • I would love to be part of a collective. I have a friend who belongs to Kamoinge http://www.kamoinge.com/history.htm, she is always shooting or exhibiting. I read up on Amber when my tutor Moira suggested I look up the work of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, who photographed the residents in the town of Byker and then rephotographed the new Byker several decades later.
    The two sets of work are very different. http://www.amber-online.com/exhibitions/byker
    http://www.amber-online.com/exhibitions/byker-revisited, I managed to find a copy in the library it was worth the effort.

  • Thanks for highlighting this Jose – I live near Newcastle and visit the ‘Side gallery’ often – in fact the gallery and Amber have helped fuel my interest in photography over the years. Amber online is a great resource and well worth taking the time to view.
    By the way, a visit to ‘The Side’ is a must if you ever find yourself in Newcastle….

  • The Side Gallery is unique. It is the only documentary photography gallery in the UK. I have visted the gallery three times when I went up to Newcastle from London.
    It is tragic and a disgrace that their funding has been cut recently by The Arts Council. It only goes to show how little regard there is for photography in this country. I used to work for Creative Camera photography magazine during the 1980’s. The Art’s Council did the same thing by axeing funding for the magazine.The magazine eventually came to a end.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to blog listings