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sidegallery.bsky.social
Side
@sidegallery.bsky.social
Est. in 1977 on Newcastle’s Quayside: Side is home to Side Gallery, Side Cinema and the UNESCO-listed AmberSide collection, showcasing film and documentary photography on working-class life from the North East and beyond.

Sidegallery.co.uk
🎉 Ways We Celebrate - Open Call

Martín Chambi’s Gadea Wedding, Cuzco, 1930 shows a family marking a moment they want to last.

Share how you celebrate today and what those moments mean to you.
Submit to MySide: Ways We Celebrate: sidegallery.co.uk/whats-on/...
November 13, 2025 at 8:03 AM
📷 Street Photography: In Conversation with Side

Join us Mon 24 Nov, 5.30–7pm at Side for an open discussion on the role of street photography in documentary - from the AmberSide Collection and beyond.

🎟 RSVP → sidegallery.co.uk/whats-on/...
📸 T Dan Smith Slide, 1963 © AmberSide Collection
November 12, 2025 at 9:49 AM
📸 Remembrance - War Memorial, New York, North Tyneside

Year 5 pupils turned their cameras on their own village, photographing the war memorial beside the old Wheatsheaf Pub and the textures of its rebuilt stone. A study of place, memory and how the past remains part of the present.
November 11, 2025 at 9:33 AM
🕯️Remembrance Sunday

In commemoration we are sharing more images from our North Shields Studio Portraits collection, photographs likely made as keepsakes in WWII. If you recognise a face or know a connection, please get in touch: side.gallery@amber-online.com.

🔗 sidegallery.co.uk/collectio...
November 9, 2025 at 10:40 AM
🗓 72% of you voted for it - so it’s official! The first InSide meet-up is happening Mon 17 Nov, 6–8pm at Side Gallery, Newcastle.

A new space to connect, share work and shape a documentary photography community. Hosted by Side. Powered by you.

🔗 RSVP → sidegallery.co.uk/whats-on/...
November 7, 2025 at 8:41 AM
🗞 Looking back: The Winter of Discontent, 1978–79

This photograph by Richard Grassick, from his NUPE series, shows that moment up close. Today, it still feels familiar: questions about work, rights and dignity remain as urgent as ever.

📸 NUPE, 1978–1993 © Richard Grassick
November 6, 2025 at 7:59 AM
🎆 Remember, remember the 5th of November 🎆
Fireworks light up the night and bring back memories of the places and people that made us.

📸 Share what Bonfire Night looks like for you with #MySide: sidegallery.co.uk/whats-on/...
Image: Watching © Emma Eloise Smith, 2022
November 5, 2025 at 9:12 AM
🎥 Extended until 13 December

Due to popular demand, Miners’ Weekend School (1984) continues at The Burr of Berwick.
Amber Films’ six-part series captures a weekend of organising and self-education during the Miners’ Strike.

🔗 More info: sidegallery.co.uk/whats-on/...
November 4, 2025 at 12:13 PM
When LK Stow found her dad’s “boring work photos,” she uncovered the hidden story of the North Sea oil boom. In "Offshore Onshore", she reflects on his life offshore and how those years shaped her family and the coastline they called home.

📰 Read the full story: sidegallery.co.uk/blog/offs...
November 2, 2025 at 4:01 PM
📌 Today we’re resharing our FAQs from Managing Director Laura Laffler. They’re the best place to find up-to-date information, directly from the Side team. More exciting news is on the way later this year!

📰 Read full FAQs here: sidegallery.co.uk/blog/freq...
October 29, 2025 at 9:49 AM
📣 InSide is coming soon! A new monthly meet-up for photographers and anyone working with documentary images. Hosted by Side, shaped by you.

Help us pick the first date and get involved! 📝 Take the short survey: tinyurl.com/66th9vzk

📷 © Estate of Mary Gillens
October 28, 2025 at 12:47 PM
In the late 1970s, Amber didn’t just photograph Newcastle’s Quayside, they helped save it! For our blog, our Managing Director Laura Laffler revisits the story of how Amber fought to protect the city’s working riverfront from demolition.

📰 Read more → sidegallery.co.uk/blog/savi...
October 26, 2025 at 9:22 AM
🌊 New on the Side blog: an interview with photographer Peter Caton on Unyielding Floods, his long-term project documenting four years of continuous flooding in South Sudan. He speaks trust and the role of local voices in telling this story.

📖 Read → sidegallery.co.uk/blog/pete...
📸 ©Peter Caton
October 25, 2025 at 9:25 AM
🕰️ On this day in 1835, Grainger Market opened to the people of Newcastle. It has been an essential part of our city ever since.

"Six to Midnight" (Amber Films, 1974), captures a day in the life of the market, full of noise, and character.

📽️ Watch → sidegallery.co.uk/collectio...
Six to Midnight (1974)
A day in the life of Newcastle upon Tyne, with the Grainger Market at its heart. Commissioned by Newcastle City Council to showcase activity in the city during the 1970s.
sidegallery.co.uk
October 24, 2025 at 7:00 AM
🛍️ Thirty-nine years ago this month, the Metrocentre opened in Gateshead.
Between 1986 and 1989, Peter Fryer photographed its rise as part of "Coke to Coke", capturing the shift from labour to leisure.

See the full collection → sidegallery.co.uk/collectio...
October 22, 2025 at 7:55 AM
🛼 "Roller Skating, Paper Delivery Girls Anita and Emma, 1988" by Bill Stephenson.

Offered as part of our 50x50 fundraising campaign, with all profits supporting the AmberSide Trust and our work to keep documentary photography public and accessible.

🖼️ shop.amber-online.com/produ...
October 21, 2025 at 12:52 PM
📖 "God’s Promises Mean Everything" by Mark Chapman follows seven years in the life of Derek, a homeless hostel resident in Teesside. Shot almost entirely in one room, it’s a portrait of trust, loss and endurance.

Publication now available on the Side Store: shop.amber-online.com/produ...
October 20, 2025 at 8:14 AM
📷 The photo essay, "A Kind of Stillness", brings together photographs that find meaning in quiet moments. Each image comes from MySide, our open call inviting people everywhere to share how they see and experience the world.

Read the full story → sidegallery.co.uk/blog/mysi...
October 19, 2025 at 6:55 AM
🎉 Worshipper, Notting Hill Carnival, 2025 by Anna Ellis.

A quiet moment inside one of Europe’s biggest celebrations of Caribbean culture, joy and resistance.

Shared as part of MySide, our open call for photos that show how people come together. Submit by 11 Jan → sidegallery.co.uk/whats-on/...
October 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
🗞️ Our monthly newsletter shares new exhibitions, archive films and stories from the Amber collection and beyond.

Sign up to stay close to what’s happening at Side → tinyurl.com/SideNewsletter

📸 The Morning News, 1952 © Harry Morrison
October 17, 2025 at 8:08 AM
🎬 This Friday at North Shields Library, we’re showing Shields Stories (Amber Films, 1988). Screenings run on a loop throughout the day, 9.30am–5.30pm, no booking needed. Just drop in, take a seat and spend some time with these stories from the place that shaped them.

📍 North Shields Library
October 15, 2025 at 9:30 AM
🌾 Red Runway, 2022, by Ukrainian photographer Yevhen Samuchenko — a red poppy field sits alongside green wheat in the Odesa region. Received through our MySide open call, it reflects how landscape can hold memory, identity and quiet strength.

Submit to #MySidesidegallery.co.uk/whats-on/...
October 14, 2025 at 12:59 PM
🎥 We're excited to share that footage from Amber Films features in "The Iron Ladies", a new documentary on the women who organised and led during the 1984–85 Miners’ Strike.

Want to see on the big screen? The doc is screening at Tyneside Cinema on 16 Oct
🎟 tynesidecinema.co.uk/event/...
October 13, 2025 at 8:43 AM
💡 Shine a spotlight on the AmberSide Trust.

The Movement for Good: Arts & Culture Draw is giving £5,000 to ten arts/culture/heritage charities. Nominate us before 19 Oct using 1160760 – AMBERSIDE TRUST → culture.movementforgood.com

📸 Weegee, 1940s © International Centre for Photography
October 12, 2025 at 7:34 AM
🥳 How do you celebrate?

From Diwali lights to Christmas dinners, Bonfire Night to New Year, birthdays to weddings, we’re looking for photographs that show how people come together and celebrate.

Submit to MySide by 11 Jan → sidegallery.co.uk/whats-on/...
October 11, 2025 at 2:26 PM