The Side Gallery is hosting a 50x50 fundraising print sale over this bank holiday weekend (August 22-26, 2025), in which famed photographers are offering £50 prints in a limited run of 50 pieces each to support the future of Side and working‑class documentary photography and film.
The Newcastle-based gallery's 50x50 print sale offers the public a chance to acquire affordable, high-quality photographic images while raising much-needed funds for the only arts organization in the UK that is devoted to documentary film and photography centered on working-class life, from the North East of England and internationally.
Photographers donating their work include members of the Amber Film and Photography Collective, respected North East practitioners, and internationally recognized names such as Sunil Gupta, Rankin, and Sam Taylor-Johnson. Each has contributed a single image that speaks to the documentary ethos that has underpinned Side’s work since 1977.
All profits from this sale will go to the AmberSide Trust and will help fund Side’s ongoing community work, finance the continued care of the UNESCO-registered AmberSide Collection, enable future exhibitions and partnerships, and support continued public access to documentary photography in the North East.
Every photograph will be available in a limited edition of just 50 copies, each priced at £50. These prints will be exhibition quality, A4 archival C-types, produced and dispatched by fine art printers Beyond Print.
Celebrity photographer Rankin remarked: “When I started taking images, I wanted to be a documentary photographer. To show the world how I saw it. But making portraits taught me what really matters to me, people. Side gives that same power to communities, it hands them the camera and says, 'your life is worth capturing'.”
Documentary photographer Daniel Meadows said: “The AmberSide Collection is an unrivalled archive of work, created through close engagement with the people of Newcastle and the wider region. The archive is full of high-quality works of international significance – Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Izabela Jedrzejczyk, Markéta Luskačová, Chris Killip, Graham Smith – need I go on? These photographers have created some of their finest works with Side, the North East, and its people. I am lucky to have some of my own photographs in the collection and I am proud to be part of supporting its future.”
A small selection of the photographs from the 50x50 fundraising sale appears below. The artists and organizatons contributing their works include Alex Schneiderman, Alys Tomlinson, Amelia Troubridge, Anne Helene Gjelstad, Bill Stephenson, Bruce Rae, Cheryl Newman, Chris Harrison, Daniel Meadows, Dave Jordano, Dorman Long Collection, Dorothy Bohm, Edmund Clark, Ellen Campbell, Gary Calton, Hazel Plater, Homer Sykes, Isabela Jedrzejczyk, Jacky Chapman, Jane Hilton, Janine Wiedel, Jim Mortram, John Davies, Lambton Visual Aids, Leah Gordon, Lewis Khan, Liz Hingley, Maria Maza, Martin Figura, Matthew Finn, Michelle Sank, Nancy Honey, Nik Roche, Pete Robinson, Phillippa James, Rena Effendi, Rankin, Richard Grassick, Robert Golden, Sadie Catt, Sam TaylorJohnson, Sharon Bailey, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Sunil Gupta, Tessa Bynney, and Tyrone Williams.
The sale opens exclusively at Side Gallery & Cinema (5-9 Side, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1JE) between August 22-25, open 12-6pm daily, but if you can't attend in person, an online release opens at noon on August 25 on the AmberSide Trust's online store.
