Tish Murtha
| Tish Murtha | |
|---|---|
| File:Tish Murtha.jpg | |
| Born | Patricia Anne Mutha March 14, 1956 South Shields, England |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Middlesbrough, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | The University of Wales, Newport |
| Known for | Photography |
| Style | Social documentary photography |
| Website | tishmurtha |
Patricia Anne "Tish" Murtha (14 March 1956 - 13 March 2013) was a British social documentary photographer best known for documenting marginalised communities,[1] social realism [2] and working class life [3] in Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East of England.
Contents
Background & Education
In 1976, aged 20, Murtha left home to study at the famous School of Documentary Photography at The University of Wales, Newport, set up by Magnum Photos member David Hurn. 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 social poverty in the region at the time Murtha didn’t just document it, she actually lived it,[4] as the third of ten children of Irish descent [5] brought up in a council house in Elswick she captured the lives of her friends, family and the community around her while herself on a job scheme for the unemployed.[6][7]
Career
This led to the then controversial exhibitions Juvenile Jazz Bands (1979) and Youth Unemployment (1981),[6][8] which was even raised as a subject of debate in The House of Commons.[9] Around this time Murtha was also commissioned to document the campaign Save Scotswood Works (1979) [6] and provided photographs for the THAC (Tyneside Housing Aid Centre) publications Do you know what this is doing to my little girl? - Home Truths in the Year Of The Child (1979) and Burying The Problem (1980), highlighting social poverty on Tyneside.
In 1982, Murtha moved to London, where she worked on London By Night (1983) along with Bill Brandt, Brian Griffin and Peter Marlow. The group exhibition documenting Soho and the commercial sex industry, was exhibited in The Photographers’ Gallery, London.[10] 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 2008-2012, 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 [11][12][13] showcased "a radically new picture of these two turbulent decades"; Unpopular Culture – Grayson Perry Selects from the Arts Council Collection [14] examined 70 works by 50 artists the Turner Prize-winning artist describes as belonging to a period "before British art became fashionable" [15]; 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." [16]
In 2011, the group exhibition Paul Graham, Tish Murtha and Markéta Luskačová formed part of Look 11: Liverpool International Photography Festival [17][18]
Posthumously, Murtha's work was included in the group exhibitions True/Grit - A Celebration of Northern Realism (2013) [6] and For Ever Amber (2015). [19][20][21][22][23][24]
Death and legacy
On March 13, 2013 - the day before what would have been her 57th birthday - Murtha died after suffering a sudden brain aneurysm.[4]
She is survived by her daughter, Ella and grandson, Dexter.
Archive
The Tish Murtha archive, comprising thousands of unseen images, is currently being scanned by a team at The University of South Wales, led by Paul Reas.
Collections
Murtha's work is held in the following public collections:
- Arts Council of Great Britain [25]
- British Council [12][15][16]
- The AmberSide Collection [26]
- UK UNESCO Memory of the World Register [19]
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- Youth Unemployment, 1981, Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, England and touring [6]
- Juvenile Jazz Bands, 1979, Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, England and touring [6]
- Save Scotswood Works, 1979, Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, England and touring [6]
Selected Group Exhibitions
- For Ever Amber, 2015, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, England [21][22][23][24]
- True/Grit – A Celebration of Northern Realism, 2013, Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, England [6]
- Observers: British Photography and the British Scene, 2012, Serviço Social da Indústria (SESI), São Paulo Visual Arts Month, São Paulo, Brazil [16]
- Paul Graham, Tish Murtha and Markéta Luskačová, Look 11: Liverpool International Photography Festival, 2011, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool, England [18][17]
- Unpopular Culture – Grayson Perry Selects from the Arts Council Collection, 2008-2010, Hayward Gallery, London, England and touring (De La Warr Pavillion, 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) [15]
- No Such Thing As Society: Photography in Britain 1968-1987, 2008-2010, Hayward Gallery, London, England and touring (Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales - Tullie House, Carlisle - City Art Gallery, Leeds - The Exchange, Penzance - Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Arts, Warsaw, Poland - Arbets Museum, Norrkoping, Sweden - National Museum of Wales, Cardiff - Laing Art Galllery, Newcastle upon Tyne) [12][13]
- London By Night, 1983, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, England [10]
Selected Books & Exhibition Catalogues with work by Tish Murtha
- For Ever Amber: Stories From A Film & Photography Collection. Leeds: Pressision, 2015.
- Observadores: Fotografos da Cena Britanica de 1930 Ate Hoje. São Paulo: SESI, 2012. ISBN 978-8582050576 [16]
- Perry, Grayson & Morrison, Blake. Unpopular Culture: Grayson Perry Selects from the Arts Council Collection. London: Hayward, 2008. ISBN 978-1853322679 [14]
- Mellor, David Alan. No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987: From the Arts Council Collection and the British Council Collection. London: Hayward, 2007. ISBN 978-1-85332-265-5 [11]
- The book of the year. London: Ink Links, 1980. ISSN 0144-5367
Other Selected Publications
- History of Photography, Volume 33, Number 4: Crushing The Social. Routledge, November 2009. ISSN 0308-7298
- Foto8, Issue 25: North East Side. Foto8/HOST Gallery, 7 April 2009.
- Photoworks Issue 10. Brighton: Photoworks, 2008. ISBN 978-1903796276
- Ten 8 Photographic Magazine Number 11: The Changing Face of Unemployment, Unemployment in West Newcastle, Brandt, Orwell & Documentary. Ten.8.Ltd, 1985.
- Creative Camera, No. 239. London: Coo Press Ltd, November 1984.
- Newsweek: Europe's Dead End Kids, Newsweek LLC, April 20, 1981.
- Burying The Problem - a THAC Report. Tyneside Free Press Workshop Ltd, 1980.
- Do you know what this is doing to my little girl? - Home Truths in the Year Of The Child - a THAC Report. Tyneside Free Press Workshop Ltd, 1979. ISBN 9780901242525
- Extrablatt: Geworkschafter im Kampf um sinnvolle Arbeitspätze. Butter statt kanonen. Austria: Extrablatt Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H & Co. KG, September 1979.
References
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