Tish Murtha

Patricia Anne Murtha (14 March 1956 – 13 March 2013) was a British social documentary photographer best known for documenting marginalised communities, social realism and working class life in Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East of England.

The posthumously published books of her work are Youth Unemployment (2017), Elswick Kids (2018) and Juvenile Jazz Bands (2020).

Early life and education Murtha was born on 14 March 1956 in South Shields, North East England. She was the third of ten children of Irish descent, brought up in a council house in Elswick in Newcastle.

Life and work After graduating in 1978, she returned to Newcastle and set out to document "marginalized communities from the inside". Unlike other photographers who came to document poverty in the region, Murtha lived it.

This led to the then controversial exhibitions Juvenile Jazz Bands (1979) and Youth Unemployment (1981), which was raised as a subject of debate in the House of Commons. Around this time Murtha was also commissioned to document the campaign Save Scotswood Works (1979) Murtha lived in the capital for five years, working on commission for Edward Arnold Publishers. She also photographed emerging celebrities Julian Clary and Philip Herbert and took the first headshots of a young Declan Donnelly upon her return to the north east in 1987.

Between 2008 and 2012, Murtha's work was selected for three Arts Council / British Council Collection exhibitions; No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987: From the Arts Council Collection and the British Council Collection showcased "a radically new picture of these two turbulent decades"; Unpopular Culture – Grayson Perry Selects from the Arts Council Collection examined 70 works by 50 artists Perry describes as belonging to a period "before British art became fashionable" ; Observadores - Fotógrafos Da Cena Britânica Desde 1930 Até Hoje (Observers: British Photography and the British Scene) was "the first exhibition ever staged in Brazil to chart a course through British photography in modern times." In 2011, the group exhibition Paul Graham, Tish Murtha and Markéta Luskačová formed part of Look 11: Liverpool International Photography Festival.

Personal life

Murtha was a vegetarian and held left-wing political views, which informed her lifelong focus on working-class communities in north-east England. She had a daughter, Ella, whom she named after jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. Murtha raised Ella as a single mother. and Childhoods - 1977 to 2016 (2016). which contains thousands of previously unseen images. Ella Murtha became the custodian and promoter of her mother's archive and legacy. Ella published the book Youth Unemployment through Bluecoat Press in November 2017 after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

A number of Murtha's images were used as the artwork for Sam Fender's album People Watching.

Publications Books collecting Murtha's Work Youth Unemployment. Liverpool: Bluecoat, 2017. . Hardback first edition. Liverpool: Bluecoat, 2018. . Paperback second edition. Elswick Kids. Liverpool: Bluecoat, 2018. . Hardback. Juvenile Jazz Bands. Liverpool: Bluecoat, 2020. . Hardback.

Zines by Murtha Newport Tip 1978. Southport: Café Royal, 2018. Edition of 500 copies. Newport Doc Photo Class of '78. Southport: Café Royal, 2018. Four titles in a box, Newport Tip 1978, Army Snow Clearance Bridgend 1978, The Queens Jubilee Newport 1977, and Newport Doc Photo Class of '78. Edition of 150 copies. The Queen's Silver Jubilee Newport 1977. Southport: Café Royal, 2018.

Books and exhibition catalogues with contributions by Murtha The book of the year. London: Ink Links, 1980. ISSN 0144-5367. No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987: From the Arts Council Collection and the British Council Collection. London: Hayward, 2007. By David Alan Mellor. . Unpopular Culture: Grayson Perry Selects from the Arts Council Collection. London: Hayward, 2008. By Grayson Perry and Blake Morrison. History of Photography, Volume 33, Number 4: Crushing The Social. Routledge, November 2009. . Wombat: Portfolio No. 24: Tish Murtha. Paris: Wombat, September 2016. Loose Associations. Volume 4, Number 2: Various. London: The Photographers' Gallery, 2018. . Includes work by Murtha and Alex Prager.

Collections Murtha's work is held in the following public collections: Arts Council of Great Britain British Council UK UNESCO Memory of the World Register National Portrait Gallery, London

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions Youth Unemployment, Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, England and touring, 1981 Tish Murtha - England 78 - 81, Willy Brandt Haus, Berlin, 2019

Group exhibitions Childhoods - 1977 to 2016, 2016, Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK For Ever Amber, 2015, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Unpopular Culture – Grayson Perry Selects from the Arts Council Collection, 2008-2010, Hayward Gallery, London, and touring (De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea; Harris Museum, Preston; Royal Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury; DLI Museum & Durham Art Gallery, Durham; Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton; Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth; Scarborough Art Gallery, Scarborough; Longside Gallery, Wakefield; Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; Mead Gallery, Coventry) Idea of North, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, 2018 Distinctly, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China, September 2018. Work by Murtha and Martin Parr, Chris Killip, Daniel Meadows, John Myers, Markéta Luskačová, Robert Darch, Ken Grant, Paul Seawright, Niall McDiarmid, Elaine Constantine, and Kirsty Mackay.