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"High levels of unemployment"
"have always been a hard and constant feature"
"of life in the west end of Newcastle"
" our society has no solutions".
"My work depends on an investment of time"
"intensified as it is"
"by the government's extreme free market philosophy"
- " the Demon Snapper" - " events and experience
"that shape our lives"
- " the confused fantasies" - " diverse community
"I've been documenting the human effects of unemployment"
"the consequences of which will be enormous."
"Young people, already experiencing the problems of adolescence."
"The future is nevertheless clearly discernible."
"Dear Ella, I give you my heart"
The joy in her photographs is incredible.
The history of working-class people.
She recognised, you know, beauty, but it was usually as a means to an end.
She was a fighter.
She wasn't going to sit still.
She fought the good fight.
If you want to photograph the tribe, you've got to be part of the tribe.
You've got to dance the same dance.
When I think of my mam,
it's always people.
She just took pictures of what was in front of her
because she saw
that what was in front of her, her world and the people in it,
they needed to be seen, do you know?
And she knew that
with this camera
she could capture it, show people, and
give people a value.
Do you know, these people existed.
They mattered They lived They were there.
And my mam was going to make sure that they were seen.
I'd seen her work in a show in Aberystwyth,
and I walked around that show and saw lots of work that I'd seen before.
And then I saw some that I hadn't.
and that I was really captivated by, and
and I just thought that, "This is different"
"I need to meet this person and find out why."
My mam had died and I was clearing out her stuff,
and I found this letter
and it was from you - Yeah.
And you had been to meet my mam at Side,
but it was just saying how much you'd enjoyed meeting her
and you found her honesty, like, so refreshing
I mean, you don't
you don't meet many people like Tish
I've always sort of thought
that history is so posh.
You know, it's so much about rich wealth.
Someone from that place, genuinely recording
and making part of history, the lives of people,
was really important.
And there she was, doing it.
So, all of that made it feel more imperative that her work
was actually embedded as part of a
a history of Britain - Yeah.
A history of working-class people.
I have no idea why Tish's work wasn't better known.
Those photographs just felt really honest,
and I just couldn't work out how someone had managed it.
Yeah - Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, you just needed to know who and why.
Yeah, how's this person where've they come from to do this?
How have they got the insight to be able to do this?
You know, grief's a horrible thing.
And at that point, when you got in touch with me,
you were obviously, like.
It was so raw, yeah - Very raw
I have to say, I've never seen a reaction like this
I've never seen somebody - Really?
No, it's so driven, Ella
It's so driven, and, you know, so, like, uh.
"Let's get this done Let's make this right"
? Vissi d'arte
? Vissi d'amore
? Non feci mai male
? Ad anima viva
? Con man furtiva
? Quante miserie
What was it like being Tish Murtha's little sister?
Well, for a start, she demanded that,
when the new baby came along, it was going to be called Eileen.
No-one had any say at all?
Nobody had any say That was what was happening.
So, she would have been two and a half? Three?
Two and a half, and she was already so determined.
Yeah Yeah, she was
Yeah.
Yeah, very, very determined.
So, this is.
Tish - Tish.
me and Mark My brother Mark, yeah.
I love it - School photo!
She was the third oldest, wasn't she? Was she quite protective?
- Of the younger ones? - Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, that was her role That was her job, really
I mean, there's nine months between some of us.
Yeah.
And my mother was sort of very gentle.
Yeah - She was a great,
wonderful mother.
Encouraged us to be interested in all sorts of things.
You know, interested to cultivate
creative and artistic things that she'd seen in all of us,
in all of her ten her brood.
And I can remember her buying us things like crayons and pencils and paper,
even when she couldn't afford it.
I'd been quite close to Tish, because we used to go on our travels.
She used to take me around with her,
and I was probably a pain in the back-side to her,
but, when we moved to Elswick, it was a very different.
Completely different to South Shields.
I call it "the darkness on the edge of town"
because it was.
It was a It was a strange world.
It had a floating population of people.
There was always arterial blood spilled along Elswick Road,
and, you know, sometimes it's funny, isn't it?
Your memories are black and white, but the blood's always red.
All around us was these derelict houses.
Some of them got knocked down and levelled,
so, there was always a wasteland where the kids could have fires.
But it was it was things like this
and the name of the street there,
in all its finery
So, do you know the picture of you where you're with three of the boys
and you're on the pillars of the old church
and you look like statues?
You just look like like you just own the place.
What did he make you do?
What, even as kids?
Yeah.
We used to look in the bins.
Have a scavenge, look for treasure.
- Yeah, we were proper skip-rats. - So, she found a camera?
Yeah, yeah We used to go in the old houses,
and people had just left and there was always stuff in them.
There was encyclopedias,
some of the most amazing books and encyclopedias.
And I think she probably got it in one of those houses.
It was considered to be the worst square-mile in England.
Bloody hell - at that time.
Often, you'd get cars driving up
and driving along beside you and asking you, you know, to get in.
And there was lots of curious people
who were probably fine, but you just didn't know.
And you had to learn quite quickly and be streetwise.
So, I think she took to carrying that camera
because you had to keep yourself safe.
You had to keep your brothers and sisters safe.
She always felt safer when she had it Even though it had no film in it.
- Yeah, that's right. - So, when do you, like.
When do you remember her first starting to be interested in photography
and actually having some film in a camera
and taking photographs?
Probably about when she was about
15, 16
I remember me and her
taking photographs one weekend of each other
I mean, I didn't know how it worked, particularly,
and I think Tish was just learning, anyway,
so, we took these photographs of each other.
That was one of the very first I mean, it's so damaged, but.
It's beautiful, though.
And she must have had access to a darkroom,
and I think Jos and Bob had set one up in their house.
I met Eileen first at a kind of youth club.
She must have taken me back for a cup of tea
Tish must have been there.
And then they started coming up to my house where I was a student
at Ravensworth
I introduced her to the darkroom, and she was raved over it.
You know, going into a darkroom and seeing actual photographs
appear in front of your eyes in the dark.
Well, she
I have this, and it says in the front of it,
"To Jos and Bob."
"Do you see what you two started when you gave me"
"the use of a camera and darkroom and made me go to college?"
I thought it'd be a good idea for Tish to get formal instruction,
but she was petrified.
She was convinced that they wouldn't take her.
- She didn't have confidence in herself. - No confidence, yeah
I think we literally turned up at the front door
and I walked in and I said, "You're going in".
Then I left her to it.
Well, I'm teaching on a course in Newcastle, at Bath Lane.
- So, what was she like? - She was tough.
And she wasn't going to take anything lying down.
She was tough, she was strong - Yeah.
Fortunately, we had cameras that we could lend students.
She brought some stuff to me "That's my mam, that's my nan.
- "That's my uncle, that's my" - Yeah.
I said, "These are fantastic, Tish Go do some more"
Yeah, you know, she recognised beauty.
But in fact, to me, the photographs that are the ones that.
It's the ones of childhood - Yeah.
And it's to do with childhood It's not to do with poverty, it's not to do with.
You know, it's That's where the joy comes from.
Your mother wanted to learn
how to take photographs
with a specific
idea in mind.
You know, she wanted to document.
She wanted a photograph to use as evidence and proof
to make people's lives better,
or to stop injustices and that type of thing.
She wasn't interested in the rest of the bollocks, and.
Dennis was subversive, shall we say
I mean, for instance, when we did the studio portraiture,
it was a lot more free than it was probably meant to be.
The problem was that the course she was on wasn't
a course that she should have been on, to be honest.
- Oh Why not? - Because it was too
it was too specifically commercial, which did not include documentary.
So, I did bend the course a little bit.
- This is from Well, it's. - School report? Oh, no!
Oh my God,
"I intended to take pictures of the cemetery railings"
" but the caretaker locked the gates."
"This meant I could only take pictures"
"of the cemetery railings from one angle"
"So, I decided to take the pictures"
"of the railings around the tomb"
"I thought that the wrought iron patterns on the rail"
"were very like funeral urns"
"that went very well with the object they were enclosing."
"On 12A and 13A,"
"this is what I was trying to show."
"The other shots were taken to show the different angles"
"but the pictures did not come out as I expected."
"They seemed blurred, and not sharp enough to show"
"the harshness of the subject"
She was true to herself
and she was true to the medium, and
she was brilliant, she was very, very good.
It was like she was born with a silver camera in her hand.
Well, I liked her work.
A lot of it centered around members of her family.
And they were the tough end of working-class life.
And so, she just photographed them, and the penny dropped later
that what they had in common was "unemployed", you know?
And they were in her neighbourhood.
They were good, they were intimate, they were strong, and they were powerful.
They were like her.
She was very brave 'round here, I'll tell you
I mean, people with cameras 'round here are normally people from the DSS.
Or the local police force or whatever.
People become very suspicious
I mean, she took a few chances.
The fact is that people knew she was Tish Murtha,
probably allowed her a little bit more credence.
A bit more leeway, yeah.
She was one of us, you know, one of the kids.
Because of where we lived,
you couldn't just be a passive bystander.
You had to be involved.
She kind of honed her eye, if you like.
And because she was a very determined person,
she wasn't going to be told that,
"Well, you need to take pretty pictures" or, "That's what a camera's for."
She knew, you know,
that what was in front of her was
you know, as important - Yeah
as anything
I think she knew that this was as valid
as any book you picked up and looked at,
that what she was seeing in front of her was our life,
and it needed to give it a value, you know.
- Yeah. - to put it there and say,
you know, "We are here," you know, "We are.
- "We have a value, you know?" - Definitely.
You couldn't go anywhere in this country
and do documentary photography.
There was a magazine in those days,
a photograph magazine called The British Journal of Photography,
and loads of courses were advertised in there.
And I must have, somehow or other,
seen this thing about Newport College of Art.
- Here we go Are you ready for this? - Oh, my.
So, this Have a look at this Just.
"Be at Newport College of Art"
"and ask for David Hurn or John Charity"
"on Tuesday the 25th of May."
"Good luck, Dennis."
Oh, wow Good grief
I remember Tish very clearly.
She was the shortest interview there'd ever been.
Because she came in, the first question was,
"Why do you want to be What do you want to photograph?"
And she literally did say,
"I want to photograph policemen kicking kids," you know?
And I said, "You're in"
It was a bit strange, really.
We all turned up at college that first morning,
and she was a bit sort of concerned as to where she was
going to sort of plonk everything, I think, more than anything else.
And I seem to remember saying to her then, "Where are you staying?"
'Cause everybody I was relatively local.
And your mother sort of said, "Well, I don't know yet I'm still working on it".
And I got the impression, I think, that what her ultimate plan was
that when everybody had gone, she would have probably found
a corner in the darkroom somewhere and settled down
I suggested to her that I had a spare room,
that she was quite welcome to come and stay.
This camera here - Yeah.
- So, this is my mam's OM-1 - Yeah, yeah, yeah
- that she bought on hire purchase. - Yeah, yes
from Dixons Newport - Yeah, yes
in November, 1976.
Yeah - And you were her guarantor.
Oh!
God, that was dangerous "£189" How sweet.
Well, that was one of the most sensible things I did.
I set up this sort of pattern of working
by which you worked with a single person
and then a relationship between people
I had what was called an establishing shot
I've seen it on the contact sheets, yeah.
If you look at the John Ford movie Stagecoach,
the film opens up with a big landscape,
actually in Arizona,
and it's this little, tiny stagecoach going down That's an establishing shot.
It tells you where the film.
The film is taking place out there.
And then it goes in and it shows you the stagecoach,
and then it goes in and you see the close-up of John Wayne.
All I was doing was teaching them how to do that
with any story you did.
And what was good was she didn't fight me on this.
- Did she fight you on much stuff? - Yeah, nearly everything.
But just because she was her.
She obviously felt most comfortable if she felt she was having a say.
Okay - and I loved that.
You see, this is
so typical of her, in that
she would seemingly be this abrasive person,
but she was the person that was keeping her files.
and captioning
and doing all that back at home.
She was quite a firebrand, I suppose,
and you could tell that straight away.
You know, there was no messing about.
It's reflected in her work, isn't it?
It's very gritty and very to-the-point.
But what I think impressed me was that
there must have been quite a few people that she photographed
that would have said, "No," you know, "I don't want to be photographed".
But there was no sort of barrier.
We just got completely
taken over by doing documentary work.
We shot about 20 rolls of film a week,
and we had to go out and do a portrait of a worker or something.
We'd all be going out doing lollipop ladies
and street cleaners, and going into schools and everything.
And Tish went down and went into pubs.
That was her home ground.
And I suppose that's what struck me straight away,
that this was someone who had an agenda.
At the end of the course was the Queen's Jubilee.
So, we all had to take pictures to do with it.
At first, your mother was not interested at all.
So, we did spend a while
sort of persuading her to come round.
If you sort of work down a list of the things that the Jubilee did,
street parties were obviously quite a strong.
And you could break that down into, then, posh street parties,
middle-class street parties and working-class street parties.
And clearly that suddenly became what, in fact, she did.
So, how did Tish make you feel?
I think probably jealous, to certain extent.
- Really? - Yeah, because, I mean
her work was what
the course was about.
One important thing that David taught us,
you had to get empathy with your subject.
Her background obviously helped her do that.
And she had an opportunity to show the rest of the world, I think,
what life was really like.
She had a wonderful picture of a couple
who were a disadvantaged couple who were sleeping on the street.
And it's so tender It is so tender.
She had a passion, and she knew what she wanted to do.
You can't teach somebody how to have passion.
Were you in Newcastle when she came back from Wales?
Yeah, yeah.
- Did you notice a difference in her then? - Absolutely, yes.
And there was so much going on
politically at that time as well, wasn't there?
- Yeah. - You know, there was a whole generation
of disenfranchised and disaffected
young people who had nothing.
There were so many hurdles on the way up,
to her getting to that point - Mm.
The address alone, the area we lived in,
was a no-no, it was a block.
It seemed that
okay, she'd made a step and gone beyond Elswick,
and I think she needed to learn the technical things
and she needed to perfect that
and know how to create a beautiful image, to give it a nice finish, and.
But the actual content
she knew already because she'd lived it.
Last month, vickers Management announced its intention
to close its Scotswood factory in Newcastle,
putting almost 800 jobs at risk.
The workers lodged a campaign to oppose the closure
and issued a list of demands,
including clarification on how the decision to close the factory was made
and disclosure of what discussions have taken place with the government
for financial support and new investment.
Yesterday morning, the workers took over the factory,
locking the doors and gates to stage a sit-in protest.
"I don't like the term 'community photographer '".
"Makes me think of middle-class trendies."
"My use of photography and my approach to it"
"is based on the conviction"
"that the fundamental value of the medium"
"is its capacity to provide direct, accurate and vital records"
"of the conditions, events and experience"
"that shape our lives."
"I've been documenting the human effects of unemployment"
"and the unsuccessful campaign against the closure"
"of Vickers Scotswood Works."
"I hope it shows the effects of unemployment on men"
"and its repercussions on society."
"I think it's a strong exhibition, and can raise a few issues"
? to see the Blaydon Races
? Oh, me lads, you should've seen us gannin'
? Passing the folks along the road Just as they were stannin'
? There was lots o' lads and lasses there
? All with smiling faces
? Gannin' along the Scotswood Road.
She was frightening.
- Frightening? - Your mother was a bit scary, yeah.
Was she? She was only a tiny little thing.
I remember her telling me that the management had taken chisels
to the last two dates on the equipment, so the people couldn't say,
"Well, you know, no wonder the bloody factory isn't efficient"
"because you haven't actually changed this since 1932"
Tish was firmly of the left Yeah, unabashedly of the left.
And she did work for different unions at different times.
Not to get paid, but just to help them.
She was committed She was a committed individual.
She was committed to working-class struggle,
which is continuous and never-ending.
She came from a family with a fierce reputation.
Her brothers were pretty tough, you know You didn't argue with Tish Murtha
'cause you didn't want her brothers going after you, that's for sure.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
And certainly, you didn't want her dad chasing you.
Oh, God, no Yeah
? Nell'ora del dolore
? Perché me ne rimuneri
In the background of our life, there was always this
opera, you know, all these romantic arias.
Yeah - So, that actually
- really sort of heightened the tension. - The tension.
There was all this
you know, sort of aggro,
and you're not knowing whether, when you came in,
what you were going to have to deal with.
I don't know how my Nana did it.
Some of the things she put up with,
other people would have gone, you know.
- Yeah. - in spite of having children.
But she stayed for us.
He was harsh with all his kids.
He was a man of his time, that's all I'm going to say.
He was a man of his time.
How do you get over something like that, Carl?
Even though we were scared of him,
we would challenge him - Yeah.
And it's always quite a dangerous
place to be, because you don't know
where you know, you don't know where the line is.
You know, I think he'd been quite violent with my mother as well.
So, he would line everybody up and say, "Right, everybody, bend over".
He used to like to show people his control.
'Cause he used to use the belt.
Well, I know my mam had she had some scars.
God, yeah - She refused to cry.
Yes Yeah, that's absolutely true.
I think it says a lot about my mam's.
Strength of character Yeah, yeah, yeah.
She wouldn't She wouldn't let him see.
My grand a, he had the fight with the council.
He was threatened with rent arrears.
- So, you were going to be evicted? - Yeah, yeah.
He said, "Well, that'll mean my kids'll end up in care," sort of thing.
You know, "Okay, go ahead and do it".
And he called their bluff, and they did it.
How old were you?
I was four - Oh, my gosh.
And Tish would have been six, six and a half.
We were taken to this huge place
and told we had to be very quiet, and.
We went in and we were lined up.
- And then the nuns all came and. - God
chose which ones they wanted.
You know, "I'll have this one, I'll have that one".
So, we were we were separated.
They were cruel, they were very cruel You know, horrible
quite violent women, they were.
And the funny thing about it, and probably Tish is just the same,
I hadn't realised I was really alive properly until that moment, you know?
She was a very determined person.
She'd come from the School of Hard Knocks, basically,
and I was involved with Side Gallery at the time,
and helped get a commission for Tish
to photograph juvenile jazz bands.
"Although the regimentation and discipline of the Second World War"
"and its accompanying boom in industry"
"encouraged a decline,"
"jazz bands have re-entered the scene"
"and re-establish themselves in new form,"
"mainly in the areas"
"where economic and social deprivation are the norm."
"These pictures were taken in the west end of Newcastle,"
"an area categorized by and noted for its inadequate facilities,"
"including everything from housing to public telephones."
"Children's leisure activities are no exception,"
"and the jazz band reigns supreme,"
"as much a feature of the area as the high-rise flats"
"and the local dole office."
"In addition to the official band,"
"small groups of children who, for various reasons,"
"are not eligible for membership"
"the jazz band rejects - improvise toy bands."
"These often start out as an attempt to emulate the big band,"
"but involve the child's imagination"
"to almost the same extent"
"as the official band denies it."
"To be accepted into and remain in the juvenile jazz band,"
"a child must put aside all normal behaviour"
"and become the plaything of the failed soldier,"
"the ex-Armed Forces member and their ilk."
"Any spark of individuality"
"is crushed by the military training imposed,"
"until the child's actions resemble"
"those of a mechanical tin soldier,"
"acting out the confused fantasies"
"of an older generation"
"A recent move by local authorities in Newcastle"
"gives jazz bands the official seal of approval"
"by the allocation of grants from local funds,"
"ensuring that, whatever the demand,"
"these poor substitutes for creative recreational activity"
"are here to stay"
"with a little help from the taxpayer"
She didn't like juvenile jazz bands.
She thought it was a complete waste of time and energy
to blow in a kazoo when you could have learned a musical instrument.
It used to drive her mad, you know? She hated it.
But she knew it was part of the culture of where she grew up.
It was kind of like the view that this was somehow creative.
And Tish would go on and say, "They're marching up and down there,"
"it's like some bloody neo-fascist."
And also, she kind of wasn't very comfortable with the relationship
between the people who were training the young girls
wearing extremely short skirts, you know?
And looking back on it, it is a bit kind of bizarre, isn't it?
But I remember writing a letter to the Evening Chronicle.
Yeah, 'cause people all started writing in calling her the Demon Snapper.
- And I think you wrote in to defend her. - Yeah, I did.
"In reply to letters in Family Extra on April the 4th",
"I would like to make it quite clear I am not attacking individuals"
"or specific juvenile 'jazz' bands."
"Having observed the growth of these bands throughout my childhood,"
"I feel I'm as entitled as the next person"
"to draw my own conclusion based on these experiences,"
"and I find the photographic medium"
"a suitable vehicle for their expression."
"The amount of controversy generated by the exhibition"
"has been as much a surprise to me as to anyone else."
"Since a discussion is now underway,
"I would like to invite any member of the public
"to bring their views to a debate scheduled for April the 25th at 7:30pm
"at the Side Gallery.
"Hopefully, the issue can be thoroughly and fairly discussed.
"Tish Murtha,
"the Demon Snapper"
She didn't come across as a person that you would mess with.
Did she not?
Not that easily, you know.
No, she didn't mind upsetting people, if it brought the agenda forward
that it was militaristic, that most of these bands were run
by failed Sergeant Majors from the Army,
bullying the kids into being performing monkeys, really.
It's very important that people from within communities
record their own community.
If there's any bleakness in my work, it was bleakness that I felt.
You know, the thing is with myself and your mam,
you know, we were living in these marginalized communities.
We were part of the community, which was a rare thing at the time.
It's a different story when you're actually from the place you're working in.
You've got the mentality that you're photographing your people, really.
You're part of the tribe,
and you're trying to do your best to represent the tribe in the best way.
You know, when I first saw your mam's jazz band work,
I was just amazed how close she got in to people.
She spent time with people, which is obvious.
You've got to invest a lot of time actually getting to know people
before you can get close to people
and where the camera becomes a secondary thing,
you're just there as part of the crowd and you're documenting things.
She invested a lot of time in her work.
She would spend months and months
photographing these kids in Elswick.
There's a photograph with a guy with a cigarette hanging out his mouth,
- he's playing cards and stuff like that. - Yeah.
To take a photograph like that, you've got to be there
for a long, long time, to study what's going on
I would like to see the photographs either side of that one.
Mm.
Tish used to work on a body of work, rather than just a single image,
where you're building up a story, you're building up the narrative,
and you're bringing all these characters in, you know,
and it builds a wider picture,
rather than just one single portrait.
I'd been sitting on our wall,
the front of the house,
just entertaining the kids as they went by.
All the kids seemed to run over the road and went in this direction.
And when we got there, we saw these,
my brothers jumping out of the top window.
That type of activity was all day long Nothing else for them to do.
- That is reality That's the way it was. - That was your life.
And that's We're entitled to show it.
What were you thinking about on that wall?
Do you have a favourite?
I love this one of you You're stunning, do you know, like.
What was happening there, then?
Yeah.
There you are "Handle With Care"
What did you want to do, then, when you grew up?
You wanted to be an actor?
"Carl was admitted to John Marley School in September, 1977."
"He is an honest young man, and we have no hesitation"
"in recommending him for any position of trust."
"This letter is intended to be shown to prospective employers."
And you were just.
And you were sent out to just.
It's just slave labour.
It was a Thatcherite scheme
to take the numbers down of the youth unemployed.
It was a Youth Opportunity scheme.
For your dole money, you had to join a scheme
that would do voluntary work here and there.
But that's all you were ever going to be good for.
You can see why some of these kids turned to crime.
They were forced onto these silly schemes that led to nowhere.
"We'll stop your money if you don't go on it," you know?
And treating them like they were little children of serfdom.
She was seeing her brothers, particularly,
who, literally, they were
they were a forgotten generation of young people.
There was nothing for them You were often sent for an interview,
but soon as they knew you were from Elswick,
you didn't stand much chance.
Tish identified with youth unemployment
because she was unemployed.
She knew exactly what was happening to them, what a struggle it was.
She was so angry about it.
She
She recorded her friends in their struggles,
these young kids who couldn't get jobs, you know?
They'd left school without any qualifications,
and if they had qualifications, what job were they going to get?
There were no jobs going.
Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.
Where there is error, may we bring truth.
Where there is doubt, may we bring faith.
And where there is despair, may we bring hope.
"High levels of unemployment"
"have always been a hard and constant feature"
"of life in the west end of Newcastle."
"The area, built up in the 19th century"
"on the basis of heavy engineering and shipbuilding,"
"once at the very centre of the economy,"
"has been contending with the accumulated effects"
"of industrial decline and stagnation for much of the century,"
"and its physical symptoms are apparent"
"in the area's general air of dereliction and decay."
"The official assessments place the actual number"
"out of work in this area at 1,700."
"Over double the rate in comparison with the rest of Newcastle."
"Approximately 1,100 of these"
"are under the age of 30."
"Clearly a very serious situation."
"Nevertheless, the Government's Youth Opportunity Programme"
"obscures the real situation,"
"as those participating are officially termed 'employed'"
"and never enter the statistics"
"Carl Murtha left school in summer, 1979"
"with a number of qualifications, an excellent reference
"and an ambition to work in some capacity
"with a drama workshop.
"His experiences since then
"have convinced him that he and hundreds of others like him
"will never be allowed to be anything more than part of the growing reserves
"of a fully-expendable cheap labour market.
"After six weeks of constant searching for work to no avail,
"Carl and his mate Cuddles, from the same street,
"received cards from the Career Centre,
"which informed them that, 'An exciting opportunity has arisen.
"" Report to this office at once '
"They were asked to hand in these cards,"
"and told to report to the city's cleansing department,"
"where they were officially introduced"
"to the joys of sweeping the Newcastle streets,"
"one of the Manpower Services Commission schemes"
"of the YOP."
"The main criticisms of both lads on the scheme"
"was not the small wage of £2055"
"for 40 hours per week hard graft,"
"usually in atrocious weather conditions,"
"but the physical and mental bullying"
"of the work's gaffers,"
"one of whom had the strange habit"
"of sticking brush shanks through the dungarees of the smaller-built lads"
"and hanging them from the nearest beam"
"until he had the curious satisfaction of seeing them burst into tears."
"One lad in particular"
"was singled out for a stronger dose of this treatment."
"He's now receiving psychiatric help."
"The charge hand responsible for the bullying"
"has now joined the police force"
"Young people, already experiencing the problems of adolescence",
"are left to cope alone with a situation"
"that their educational training has not prepared them for,"
"forcing them into a state of premature redundancy"
"the minute they pass through the school gates for the last time."
"What is becoming clear to the generation now approaching maturity"
"is that our society has no solutions for their problems,"
"can give no direction to their lives."
"Unemployment and all its associated deprivations"
"are not only getting worse,"
"but new technologies threaten to make the situation permanent."
"Behind empty, pathetic talk of increased leisure opportunities"
"and freedom from repetitive labour,"
"stands the spectre of enforced idleness, wasted resources"
"and the squandering of a whole generation of human potential"
"This is vandalism on a grand scale"
"Hidden in a smokescreen of cynical doubletalk"
"and pious moralising,"
"the shape of the future"
"is nevertheless clearly discernible."
"Cuts in social spending,"
"including unemployment benefits,"
"mean that the conditions under which they must endure their enforced idleness"
"will rapidly deteriorate to become an intolerable burden,"
"the consequences of which will be enormous."
"No established channels exist"
"to represent or even acknowledge the interests of those involved,"
"and the failure of the political parties and even the trade unions"
"to contribute anything other than platitudes to the situation"
"increases the alienation of the youth still further."
"The intractable nature of this problem,"
"intensified as it is by the Thatcher government's"
"extreme free market philosophy,"
"opens up a period of bitter conflict,"
"as young people grow more and more frustrated,"
"and refuse to accept the logic of an economic system"
"which deprives them of a productive and meaningful future"
"It must never be forgotten"
"that there are barbaric and reactionary forces in our society,"
"who, while having no intrinsic appeal to the youth themselves,"
"will not be slow to make political capital"
"from an embittered youth,"
"should the labour movement fail"
"to give their search for new social, economic and political values"
"a positive and sustained direction"
Tish Murtha May, 1980.
She was really angry.
Really?
Obviously, you're her youngest brother and she loved you very much,
and she was so angry
at what was happening to you and all of your friends, do you know?
The only thing she could do to try and help you
was to shine a light.
I mean, 'cause it got talked about in Parliament.
So, did she break you?
Good.
There's this whole thing about documentary photography,
and it's about getting stuff published,
as in, is it kind of like art when it's in galleries? How does it fit in?
You know, so much of it is whether you do fit in,
whether you hit the Is it new? Is it different?
Are you authentic? Are you gritty enough?
And your mother wasn't into that type of stuff at all,
do you know what I mean?
I think myself and Tish were more or less seen as novelties, really.
Both natives of the Northeast.
And we were doing it for ourselves, really.
Had I came from a different background, I probably would have had more chance
of breaking the so-called "art world".
If you don't keep above a certain level with exhibitions and stuff like that,
it's very easy to drop out of it.
For someone like Tish, who was uncompromising,
she would have found it very difficult to toe the line.
You've just got to have the determination to see things through.
A lot of her good work was done before any involvement
with anything like Side Gallery
I got support from Northern Arts,
and I'd had support from the Arts Council of Great Britain
I can't remember Tish getting any support from either of those bodies.
"Dear Dennis",
"I left the Side Gallery, for a number of reasons,"
"but mainly because of their peculiar attitude towards me and my work."
"They wanted to manipulate it to fit their group philosophy of,"
"'Working-class culture and poverty is beautiful, man '."
"Oh, it's sickening."
"On top of that, they wouldn't provide adequate darkroom facilities"
"to do the work they employed me to do."
"And the boss's girlfriend was getting really spiteful and bitchy towards us,"
"damaging expensive photographic work"
"by bursting into the darkroom,"
"switching lights on, accidentally on purpose."
"So, as they obviously thought it was all a big joke,"
"and thought I should just be grateful for any situation they offered,"
"I told them where to stick the job,"
"and what an offensive, incestuous little clique they were."
"Anyway, I won my case against them",
"and got six weeks' full dole benefit backdated"
"Financially, things are a bit rough at the moment",
"but I'm a damn sight happier out of their clutches."
"This photography world and those who operate it"
"really make you sick at times"
- She moved to London, I think, '82 - Yeah.
I think so That's Karen.
And she was a dancer wasn't she, from Canada?
Yeah.
They were living in a shared house.
My mam had got this commission from the Photographers' Gallery
to do this project on Soho and sex workers.
And Karen was working in Soho So, they worked together,
they collaborated - Yeah.
"Dear Merylin",
"Karen and I had tea with three male prostitutes last Sunday,"
"in a semi-detached house in Wimbledon,"
"where we had cucumber sandwiches with the crust removed."
"Earl Grey tea, and indulged in nothing but polite conversation."
"It was most bizarre."
"Anyway, we managed to behave ourselves"
"and have been invited back."
"Best wishes, Tish Murtha."
"PS Soho going well."
"Was working all night last Tuesday,"
"but was chased off by a transvestite with an axe."
"Will try again 'cause I need the money"
I think I met your mum in London, in Camden
through Karen,
and she was featured in the nightlife, sort of Soho.
So, we were sort of just out of college
and just starting to work as an actor.
And then these things we sort of developed
so that we had some sort of income.
We just clicked Had a good eye
I knew she could take a good picture, if you know what I mean.
And then your mum used to come with us on the circuit
and she used to meet the girls.
The circuit was about a dozen strip clubs where all the girls would work.
So, it was Mayfair and Soho, and you'd start about
8:00, 9:00, and finish about 2:00 in the morning.
Wow.
You'd do ten minutes, ten times or 12 times a night.
A lot of them weren't licensed,
but they'd have the punters drinking non-alcoholic lager,
not knowing that they were drinking non-alcoholic lager.
And then sometimes you'd go in and do the act again after you'd done the circuit
and it'd still be the same punter there, with the hostess.
But the actual exhibition went down very well,
and a lot of the girls on the circuit came.
It was a celebration - Yeah
and the pictures were astounding.
It was like an intimate look into the other side of Soho.
So, there were prostitutes, strippers, punters.
But nothing was posed - No.
I think even there was one of Karen outside the theatre,
sort of standing against this light,
and it sort of summed up.
It was a rainy night in the West End, you know, but people still work.
She was rushing around, and, I mean, she was.
You can see there how skinny she was, do you know?
And she said she'd gone to the doctors
and she thought she was dying,
and the doctor had recommended that she drink,
I think it was half a pint of Guinness every night.
So, she was drinking this Guinness, and she wasn't really feeling any better.
But she had gone back to this doctor, and she was saying, "I think I'm dying,"
and it turned out she was pregnant with me.
Your mum got bigger and bigger with you.
and we agreed
that I could photograph your birth,
and set up shop in the labour room with her and Jimmy
I've brought some contact sheets that you made, to have a look at.
They're so beautiful
I can see why she wanted you to take them
I mean, this.
That's like - You emerging.
- Wow. - With your little dark hair.
For birth pictures, they're significant, but they're not very pretty.
She loved them I think my absolute favourite.
- And it's, like, where, like. - Oh, yes
she's waiting to meet me.
- And I just think the lighting. - The lighting was terrific.
- She was so proud. - Well, it was a lovely moment.
And it was good that your dad came along,
'cause Jimmy holding Tish.
I'm glad that, you know, she had some support I'm glad you were there.
All the time your mum was pregnant,
she knew she was going to have a boy.
- You were going to be called Nimrod. - Oh, my Why?!
Well, Nimrod Variations, Elgar,
you know, her favourite classical musician.
But then you came out and you were a little girl.
"It's 9:00."
"It's very late for a baby girl to be awake."
"She should settle down now"
"or she'll never wake up for Ramona and Dennis."
"Goodnight, dear Ella."
"I give you my heart"
And then once you were born,
you more or less became sort of a fixture
in our social life.
And it was Tish, and then Tish and Ella.
And "Tish and Ella" was almost one word.
Yeah, Tish and Ella against the world.
And I just then became your fairy godfather
I didn't want to be your godfather 'cause I'm not particularly religious.
So, that's why I decided to be your fairy godfather.
And you were in and out of the darkroom with her.
'Cause I can remember, when you were tiny, you used to watch the photos.
And I used to watch her develop stuff.
- It was magical, wasn't it? - Yeah.
I saw a statistic recently
80% of women are in education about photography,
- but then actually working in it. - Mm
it's only something like 15%.
And it's just interesting to try and understand
why so many women can't make a go.
It's a very male-dominated.
Yeah, well, I think
I know I could've, and I was capable of doing it,
but I couldn't with having a child,
'cause I couldn't work out how to look after
you know, I couldn't afford a child-minder.
It just seems, though, like, it's always women.
It's always women who have to sacrifice their careers
I feel.
The time in my mam's life, do you know, that she'd moved to London,
she was having that exhibition at the Photographers' Gallery.
She was on the cusp of huge things.
- And obviously I wasn't planned. - Mm
and I arrived,
and I've always felt really responsible,
do you know, because it's difficult.
You can't with a kid in tow, when you're a single mam.
No, but
the other side is that Tish was given, offered opportunities
I mean, everyone recognised her talent
I mean, I got her a job teaching.
Lasted half a day.
She wouldn't, she couldn't compromise.
She had to be a photographer.
You know, like, the Side often tried to sort of pull her in,
but she was really against them and feeling they were.
She was always suspicious that people were,
you know, using her - Yeah.
She had been treated badly by certain people.
And I think it does make it it makes things difficult.
You know, she was suspicious.
And I just do feel
very responsible
I mean, I didn't ask to be born,
but I think I must have changed her life irreversibly.
You were the best thing she could have had.
- Do you think? - Yeah.
- Was she happy? - She loved you so much.
You were You were the bee's knees.
You could do everything.
You were so musical
She'd drown you with jazz.
Well, I'm named after Ella Fitzgerald, aren't I? Do you know, like, it's.
She made me feel like the most special person.
Oh, yeah, no Well, you were You were magic.
To start off the play, I'm just going to state who this is.
It is Ella Murtha But first, I'm going to sing Twinkle, Twinkle.
That's my favourite song,
and I was the star in the Christmas play,
and I had to sing Twinkle, Twinkle.
So, I hope you enjoy it.
And I am a very good singer, my mummy says.
And here it is
? Twinkle, twinkle, little star
? How I wonder what you are
? Up above the world so high
? Like a diamond in the sky
? Twinkle, twinkle, little star
? How I wonder.
She suddenly took you back up north
I think she was fed up of
it sounds silly - of being poor.
She used to tell me she'd go down to Camden Market at the end of the day
and pick up vegetables off the floor and things.
We went back to Elswick, and she was taking photos again.
She was doing a whole series It was Elswick Revisited.
The area had changed drastically
from the Youth Unemployment pictures
just, you know, a mere ten years before Well, not even ten years before.
And for a time, I think we were happy.
I mean, I don't know I don't know whether Tish was ever really happy.
Well, she was very driven as well, and photography was her life.
But I think every so often, someone would sort of
give her stuff or money or
things came her way.
She was a good friend,
and she was very good to me at times, you know,
'cause you go through miserable times, and she'd sort of
spark me up.
We had some really good times.
"Hello, David"
"I have a Northern Arts Award for £2,500 paid in installments,"
"which is basically to explore racial tension in this area."
"It's a very tough one to crack, this."
"But I'm taking snaps again, which is good"
That's another good one I don't know.
Oh, this is interesting This boy here
who's got his back to us - Yeah.
he contacted me via Instagram, and he said, "Oh, I think I met your mam"
"in sort of, like, the late-'80s in Elswick Park,"
"and she came over and she started asking us about our views"
"and why we felt like that."
And he said she was the first adult who had actually listened to him
and wanted to
know how he felt.
And he said that she talked to them
about removing the emotion from a subject
and looking at it from other point of views.
And he said it changed his life
and he took that into his life.
Was she taking pictures right at the end?
The last pictures she was taking will have been these.
- This is when she was in Middlesbrough. - Yeah.
So, she spent a lot of time at Linthorpe Cemetery.
And it's quite bizarre looking at all these pictures
considering what was just around the corner.
But she found it She was at peace It was very serene.
"Here is your angel in her summer finery"
I always like the fact that she wrote something on the back of pictures,
like a little postcard.
When I see her handwriting, like, I can imagine her voice.
- Yeah. - I feel like she's here, do you know?
- It's unusual to see colour, isn't it? - Yeah, but she
she had to do colour in the later days, though,
because after the credit crunch and stuff,
she couldn't get hold of any of her chemicals.
She couldn't get black and white film, either.
Always had trouble getting black and white film.
"Central Middlesbrough is a culturally diverse community"
"which has been portrayed - unfairly to my eyes"
"as an area of crime, prostitution and drugs."
"A community which is at ease with itself in, so many ways"
"is currently threatened by redevelopment plans,"
"implementation of which is already seeing the beginnings of the demolition process."
"Originally built to house the workers from the local steel industry"
"in the late 19th century,"
"as well as the descendants of these families,"
"the community includes Asian, African, Arab, Chinese."
"Turkish and Eastern European populations."
"I would like to build a celebration of the community."
"Initial work has explored the local Mela"
"and the restored Albert Park,"
"the transformation of the narrow backyards"
"into flowering gardens"
"young mothers"
"life on the streets and in some of the meeting points."
"My approach is informal,"
"generating an understanding of what I'm doing"
"by giving copies of my photographs to the people with whom I'm working."
"I'm only seeking funding to support the cost of materials and equipment"
"that will both enable this process and produce exhibition prints,"
"through which a full celebration of the community can be achieved."
"Childcare responsibilities have made the pursuit of my documentary practice"
"difficult over recent years."
"My work depends on investment of time,"
"building of relationships of trust,"
"that allow access to the different parts of the community,"
"and to individual lives."
"Through the development of this project,"
"I will hopefully generate renewed interest"
"in my work as a documentary photographer."
"Whatever happens to the community of Central Middlesbrough,"
"the work will stand as a celebratory record"
"of a diverse community"
"which has found ways of living together in relative harmony."
"Through the validation of these different lives,"
"this community, and possibly other marginalised communities,"
"may feel empowered to challenge decision-making processes"
"that all too often ignore their views"
The impact was what you see there That was the impact.
That's the evidence, that's all you want.
It was good enough for us to live like that,
and that was the price worth paying.
Mind you, we haven't come very far.
We've been unfortunate to have the wrong people
to look after our interests.
They've failed again.
They always use money as a weapon.
But there's a lot of people who actually control
that particular funding.
Maybe send it in the wrong directions.
Yeah.
My mam's absolute favourite.
It isl That's what it is! It's you!
That's you yeah,
You look tight.
Are you pleased that she took them?
Was he?
Aw.
You just never stood a chance, did you? None of you It's.
I mean, no wonder my mam was angry.
How had older Tish changed
from the young Tish that you met in Elswick?
We missed each other for quite a few years.
Would it be 20 or 30, I don't know, since she came out?
Probably the last time was when you were a little one
- and she came out to see us. - Yeah.
In terms of, like, her personality, had she changed?
Not really She was.
Maybe she hadn't got the feistiness that she had when she was younger.
She had that edge when she was young, and it was.
She had, like, a fire in her belly, didn't she?
I think it had been extinguished, I think,
by life and just surviving - Yes.
After Middlesbrough, she moved to Allenheads,
and then from there she was close to me in Teesside.
But then, the camera, there was something wrong with it
and it was fogging up There was something wrong with the back.
Well, it had had a life
- I mean, yeah. - I mean, extraordinary.
She battered the hell out of it for God-only-knows how long.
- She got her money's worth out of it. - Oh, she certainly did.
They were great cameras, though I mean, she got that because of Don McCullin
Don McCullin used to cart them into battlefields, and all kinds of things.
"Happy Christmas, Eileen and Ali."
"Hope 2010 is a great year for you all."
"Thought you might like a copy of Photoworks."
"The article by David Mellor is nauseating claptrap,"
"but I like what the editor, Gordon, did with my photographs."
"Thank you for the shoes."
"They should fit okay."
"My situation at the moment is a bit rough."
"One week I eat, next week I don't."
"I am moving Only four streets away, but it overlooks the park."
"Not by any means perfect, but it'll do until the boat comes in."
"See you anon."
"Love, Tish"
This new welfare state
must encourage work, not dependency.
We are giving young people and the long-term unemployed the opportunity.
A £35-billion investment programme.
We are adding today the option of self-employment
as part of the New Deal.
But I think it right and fair
that they have to take one of the options on offer.
We want single mothers with school-aged children
at least to visit a Job Centre,
not just stay at home, waiting for the benefit cheque every week
until the children are 16.
I remember the dole were giving her a hard time at one point.
They wanted her to work in factory or something,
and she just wasn't having it.
And I was sort of supporting her and saying, "No, stand up for yourself".
It was the time Do you remember New Deal?
Oh, God, yeah - All of that.
She did actually get sent.
- She was sent to a meat-processing place. - Yeah.
But she was so tired, 'cause they were doing night shifts.
They used to come pick her up in this bus thing.
And she was hallucinating.
She was just so tired And the smell 'Cause, I mean, she was a vegetarian
- I know. - do you know? Like, it was.
She had so much talent,
and she just couldn't make a living from photography.
No - She just couldn't do it.
"Patricia Anne Murtha - CV"
"I am an honest, reliable and trustworthy person"
"with the ability to work on own initiatives"
"or as an effective team member."
"Having previously completed college training"
"in documentary photography,"
"I am now seeking a position where I am able to fully utilise"
"all of my skills and knowledge"
"thriving on new challenges and responsibility."
"I am versatile and adaptable,"
"and can successfully transfer my existing skills and knowledge"
"to new situations."
"Given the opportunity."
"I am confident that I will prove to be an asset to any future employer."
"During my spare time,"
"I enjoy walking to keep fit."
"To relax, I listen to music and read a variety of books."
"I like gardening, and growing my own fruit and veg."
"I'm also a keen photographer"
"and develop my own photos"
"January the 14th, 2013."
"Got an e-mail number, as requested by the Job Centre.
"Made enquiries at Aldi Chichester, for position as store assistant.
"Have no retail experience, so response not very positive.
"January the 22nd.
"Sent CV and letter to the Punjab Kitchen Ltd,
"Eldon Street, South Shields"
"Spoke to Mandy about waiting staff job."
"February the 8th Checked the Universal Jobs site various times."
"February 13th Also wrote to BB's Coffee Shop."
"February 14th Sent CV to Sodexo."
"February 16th Visited various outlets at the Gateshead retail centre"
"to make enquiries about vacancies"
She was living, like, hand-to-mouth.
Like, I helped her where I could, but I was on maternity leave.
- Of course you were. - She spent her final few weeks
traipsing around, trying to get jobs in a kitchen.
She was terrified to turn the heating on.
And, do you know, the worst thing of all,
like, it was, did she heat or did she eat?
Yes, yeah - And when she died,
I ended up getting a cheque for £100,
because she'd been religiously putting this £20 on.
- Yeah, yeah. - But terrified to have the heating on.
And she was in credit.
Do you know, she could have had the heating on,
but she felt so worthless
and like she didn't deserve to have a warm house.
And it's just, like - Oh, Ella.
But, do you know, when she was in that coma, right?
I remember - I rang them
because - Just take a breath.
When I should have been looking after her and worried about her.
I was so stressed out that she was going to get sanctioned
while she was in the hospital, and she was going to lose her house.
When she was in a coma - Yeah.
So, I rang them, 'cause I couldn't get any sense out of her
I said, "Did you sign on on Friday?" and she just.
She She just wasn't making any sense at all.
Which I now know is, do you know, what was going on in her brain.
And so, I rang them and I said, "Look, my mam",
"she's had a brain haemorrhage, she's in a coma"
"I don't know whether she came and signed on on Friday,"
"but obviously please don't sanction her."
And they just refused to talk to me.
- They refused to tell me if she'd been. - Really?
They said, "It's against data protection We cannot discuss that with you".
The way the DWP and this government,
like, the way they treat people.
- Oh, it's punishing and punitive. - It's do you know.
She was just a number We're all just numbers to them.
But, do you know, like.
She was so special She was so talented.
She was - and they didn't care.
I just like to come here because it feels like going full circle.
- Do you know, she was born here. - Yeah, she was.
Do you know, like, her happy childhood memories are here.
- We had happy times here on this bench. - This bench, yeah.
- Oh, yeah, it had to be this one. - It had to be this one.
Tish's work, I remembered when I first looked at it,
remembered the kind of thrill of what photography was
and what it could do
They clearly weren't those sort of explorer pictures.
You know, you feel when someone's exploring a culture,
when someone's exploring working-class culture,
and they've just stepped in,
and they're going to step out, back to wherever, later on.
Just parachute in - Parachute back out.
And they've got their pictures of people,
kids looking slightly grubby, and stuff like this.
This felt like my childhood.
And it became clear when I met your mum, when I learned more about the work
and talked to her more about the work, that it was because that was her,
and she had made something which was so clear
and so honest and so raw.
She was allowed to be invisible
in a way that someone from the outside wouldn't be,
'cause that was her life.
Now your mum's work is central
to people's thinking about
documentary photography from that period.
It's not peripheral any more, and that's that's something, isn't it?
So, you know, you've been helping me with Clarrie and the Tate.
- Do you know how you set up your darkroom? - Yes
I was going to ask whether you would like to print them.
Oh, God, I'd love to
I would love you to print them for the Tate Collection.
That's a really nice thing.
Um, yeah God, yeah.
To actually say that Tate Britain have acquired my mam's work
for their permanent collection,
I mean, the whole thought of that is just
it's quite overwhelming really.
I think she'd have loved to have seen her work on the wall
and, do you know, be recognised
for just how talented she was.
A lot of people say to me, like,
"That could have been me, that could have been my brother, that could have been us."
Pictures of real people, real stories, real lives.
And for it to be recognised because,
do you know, my mam's work was brilliant.
And I mean, I'm biased,
but for other people to recognise that, and for Tate to recognise that
what more could you want?
? Diedi Fiori
? Agli altar
? Nell'ora del dolore
? Perché me ne rimuneri
? Diedi I gioielli
? Della Madonna al man to
? E diedi il canto
? Agli astri, al ciel
? Che ne ride an più belli
? Nell'ora del dolor
? Perché
? Perché me ne rimuneri