Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen

"We chose Konttinen's iconic Girl on a Spacehopper for its untethered joy and exuberance. This surreal scene on an empty street was made in a neighborhood (Byker) to which Konttinen, then a young accented foreigner, had recently moved and which was unbeknownst to her, slated for urban redevelopment. The image and the series to which it belongs mark the beginning of a more than half-century journey she has spent celebrating working class and marginalized communities in the north east of England. Konttinen’s true and steadfast championing of the underrepresented and overlooked is one which the Gallery holds dear. This is also why we featured Girl on a Spacehopper in an 8 foot window-display on Madison Avenue this past September." - Parker Stephenson

A New York based gallery, L. Parker Stephenson Photographs specializes in works from the US, Europe, Japan and West Africa with a particular interest in artists engaged in social, cultural, and environmental projects from the 1960s to the present day.