[Sombre, resonant music] High levels of unemployment have always been a hard constant feature of life in the west end of society has a solution My work depend on an investment of time extreme free market philosophy confused diverse community.

Consequences of which will be enormous already experience is nevertheless clearly I give you my heart [Shutter clicks; Ruminative music] that joy in her photographs, this incredible history of working class people.

[Shutter clicks; Ruminative music] She recognized, you know, beauty, but it was usually as a means to an end.

[Shutter clicks; Ruminative music] She was a fighter.

She wasn't going to sit still.

She fought the good fight.

[Shutter clicks; Ruminative music] the tribal, got to be part of the tribe.

You could have done the same dance.

[Shutter clicks; Ruminative music] [Music concludes] [Ruminative music] When I think of my mom, 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 to know.

And she knew that with this camera she could capture it, show people and give people a value.

You know, these people existed.

They mattered.

They lived.

They were there.

And my mom was going to make sure that they were.. 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 I hadn#t and that was rea.. by and and I just thought that this is different.

I need to meet this person and find out why my mom had died and I was clearing out her stuff and I found this letter.

And it was from you.

And you had been to meet my mom outside, but it was just saying how much you 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 the history is so posh, you know so much about rich wealth.

Someone from that place genuinely recording and making part of history.

The lives of people, experiences to mine was really important.

And then she was doing it.

So all of that made it feel more imperative that her w.. was actually embedded as part of a history of Britain, 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, you just needed to know who and why House How#s this person where they come from to do this, where have they got the insight to be able to do this?

You know, grief is a horrible thing.

And at that point, when you got in touch with me, you were obviously like, so raw yeah very raw.

I have to say, I've never seen a reaction like this.

I've never seen somebody, no.

So driven Ella so driven, you know, so like, let's get this done.

Let's make this right.

- [Record crackles, "Vissi d'arte" plays] - ♪ Vissi ♪ Vissi d'amore ♪ Non feci mai male ♪ Ad anima viva ♪ Con man furtiva ♪ Quante miserie ♪ Conobbi, aiutai.

[Music continues] [Music concludes] What was it like being Tish#s little sister?

Well, for a start, she demanded that when the new baby came along, I was going to be called Eileen Nobody had any say at all Nobody had to say.

That was what was happening.

So she would have been to two and a half.

And she was already so determined.

Yeah.

Yeah, she was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this is Tish, Me and Mark, my brother Mark Yeah, school photo.

She was the third oldest, wasn't she?

Was she quite protective of the younger ones?

Yeah.

I mean, that was her role.

that was her job, really.

I mean, this, theres nine months between some of us.

Yeah.

And my mother was a very gentle, great, wonderful mother encouraged us to be interested in all sorts of things, you know, interested to cultivate creative and artistic things that you'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 that I was probably a pain in the backside too, 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 always red all around us was these derelict houses.

Some of them got knocked down and leveled, so there was always a wasteland where the kids could have fires and but it was things like this and the name of the street that in all its finery So you know the picture of you, where you're with three of the boys and you're on the pillars of the old church.

They look like statues.

Just look like.

Like you just all in the place.

What did he make you#s do?

but even as kids.

Yeah, [Ruminative music] [Music subsides] We used to look in the bins Have a scavenge, look for treasure Yeah, we were proper skip-rats.

So she found a camera?

Yep.

Yeah, we used to go in the old houses and people had just left and there was always stuff in them There was encyclopaedias, 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 at that .. Often you'd get cars driving up and it driving along beside you and asking you, you know, to get in.

And there was lots of curious people who were pr.. 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 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 firs.. 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, so damaged, but it's beautiful.

And she must have had access to a darkroom.

And I think Joss and Bob had set one up in their house.

I met Eileen first kind of youth club.

Yeah, 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 it to the darkroom and she was raved over, you know, going into a darkroom and seeing actual .. appear in front of your eyes in the dark.

Will she have this?

And it says in the front of it to Jos.

Bob, do you see what you two started?

When you gave me the use of a camera and darkroom and made me go t.. 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 to She didn't have confidence in herself.

No confidence and I think we literally turned up 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 Barcelona.

So what was she like?

But she was tough and she wasn't going to take anything lying down She was tough.

She was strong.

Yes.

Fortunately we had cameras that we could lend.

Students.

She brought some steps to me, you know, That's.

"That's my mam, that's my nan... That's me, uncle.

That's me.

Yeah.

I said, these are fantastic Tish.

Go and do some more.

[Tender music] [Music subsides] You know, she recognized beauty, but in fact, to me, the photograph of the ones that is 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 it.

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 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 portrait, It was a lot more free than 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 Bill Why not?

Because it was too, too specifically commercial, which did not include documentary.

So I did bend the course a little bit.

It's a school report.

Oh, no.

Oh, my God.

I intended to take pictures of the cemetery railings, but the caretaker locked the gates.

This meant 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 patents 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, 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.

[Wistful music] [Music subsides] Well, I liked her work, a lot of centered around members of a 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", yo.. And they were in her neighborhood.

They were good.

They were intimate, they're strong and 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 she took a few chances.

The fact is that people knew she was Tish Murtha, probably allowed her a little bit more creedence Yeah.

Yeah.

She was one of you know, one of the kids because of where we lived.

It 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.

That's what a camera is for.

She knew that what was in front of her was was, you know, as important as anything.

I think she knew that this was as valid as any book you picked up and looked at that what she was seen in front of it was our life and it needed to give it a value, you know, to to to put it there and see, you know, we are here where we are.

We have a value.

Definitely.

You couldn't go anywhere in this country and do documentary p.. There was a magazine in those days of Photograph magazine called the British Journal of Photography, and loads of courses would advertise 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?

So this have a look at this.

Just be at Newport College of Art or John Charity on a Tuesday, the 25th of May.

Good luck Dennis.

Good grief.

I remember Tish very clearly she was the shortest interview there'd ever been.

Because she came in And the first question was why do you want be what do you want to photograph?

And she literally did say I want to photograph a policeman kicking kids through that.

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 remember saying to her, then where are you staying?

Because everybody I was relatively local.

And your mother then sort of said, Well, I don't know, yeah, I'm still working on it.

And I got the impression.

I think the ultimate plan was that when everybody had gone, she would have probably found a corner in a dark room somewhere.

and settled down.

I suggested to her that I'd spare room, that she was quite welcome to come and stay.. this camera here.

Yeah.

So this is my mam's OM-1 that she bought on hire purchase.

Yes From Dixons Newport.

Yeah.

Yes.

In November 1976.

Yeah.

And you were her guarantor.

Oh.

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 work with a single person and then a relationship between people and what's called an establishing shot.

I#ve seen it on the content sheets, yeah.

If you look at John Ford movie The Stagecoach, the film opens up with a big landscape actually in an hour or so in the bazaar, and it's this little tiny stagecoach going on 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.

And 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 find you one much, though?

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 love 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 is reflected in her work, isn't it?

Very gritty and very to the point.

But what I think impressed me was that there must be quite a few people that she photographed that would have said no, you know, don't want to be photographed.

But there was no sort of no 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 on and went into pubs.

That was her home ground.

And I suppose that's what struck me straightaway, 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 just waiting at the campground.

If you sort of worked on a list of the things that the Jubilee did, street parties were obviously quite a strong and you could idea then posh street parties, middle class street parties and working class street parties.

And clearly that suddenly became what in fact, she did [Stirring music] [Music concludes] So how did Tish make you feel?

I think probably jealousy to a certain extent, really?

Yeah, because, I mean, her work was what the course was about.

One important thing that David taught us, you get empathy with your su.. Her background obviously helped her do that, and she had the opportunity to show the rest of the world, I think, what life was really like.

She had a wonderful picture of a couple of the 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 for you in Newcastle when she came back from Wales.

Yeah.

So 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 disenfranchized and disaffected young people who had nothing and there were so many hurdles on the way up to her getting to that point The address alone, the area we lived in was a a no no.

It was a block.

It seemed that okay, she'd made a step, had 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 launched 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 a disclosure of what discussions have taken place with the government for financial support and new investment.

yesterday morning the workers to over the factory, locking the doors and Gates staged 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 is based on the conviction that the fundamental value of the medium is its capacity to provide direct, accurate, inviting 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 a 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 [Music builds] [Music builds further] [Music continues] [Music subsides; Rowdy singing] - [Music - "Vissi d'arte" by Maria Callas] - ♪ Nell'ora ♪ Perché, perché, Signore?

♪ Perché me ne rimuneri ♪ Coì?

She was frightening.

frightening, - Your mother was a bit scary, yeah Was she She was only I remember her telling me that the management are taking chisels to the last two dates on the equipment so that people couldn't see.

Well, you know, no wonder the bloody factory isn't isn't efficient, because you have to change this since 1932, Tish is firmly of the left and unabashedly of the l.. 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.

[Sombre, resonant music] [Music subsides] She came from a family with a fierce reputation.

Brothers were pretty tough.

You didn't argue with Tish Murtha cause you didn't want her brothe brothers going after you, That#s for sure and certainly you didn't want her dad chasing you Oh, God, no.

Yeah - [Music - "Vissi d'arte" by Maria Callas] - ♪ Nell'ora ♪ Perché, perché, Signore?

♪ Perché me ne rimuneri ♪ Coì?

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.

It was all this, you know, sort of aggro, and you're not knowing what the thing if you, when you came in, what you're 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, and in spite of having children.

But she stayed for us.

It was harsh with all these kids.

It was a man of his time.

That's all I'm going to say.

He was a man of his time.

how could 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.

Used to like to show people his control because he used to use the belt.

Well, I know my mum had she had some scars.

Oh, yeah.

She refused to cry.

Yes.

I think it says a lot about my mum's strength of character.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, she wouldn't.

She wouldn't let him see me grandad.

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 will end up in care sort of thing and, you know.

Okay, go ahead and do it.

And he called the bluff and they did it.

How old were you?

I was four, 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 went in and we were lined up.

And then the nuns all came and chose which ones they wanted I'll have this one.

I#ll have that one so we were separated.

They were cruel.

They were very cruel, you know, horrible, quite violent women that were.

And the funny thing about it, and probably Tish is just the same, I hadn't realized 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 commi.. For Tish to photograph juvenile jazz bands, although the regimentation and discipline of the Second World War and its accompanying boom in industry, encouraged their decline.

Jazz bands have re-entered at the scene and reestablish themselves in new form, mainly in the areas where economic and social deprivation are the norm.

These pictures were taken in the West End.

in Newcastle, an area categorized by and noted for its inadequa.. including everything from housing to public telephones.

Children's leisure activities are no exception and the jazz band reigned supreme as much a feature of the area as the high rise flats and the local dole office In addition to the official ban, 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 behavior 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 i.. when you could have learned a musical instrument that used to drive her mad.

She hated it, but she she knew 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 them 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 then looking back on it is a bit kind of bizarre, isn't it?

But I remember writing a letter to the Evening Chronicle because people all started writing and called it the Demon Snapper.

And I think you wrote in to defend her.

Yeah, I.. In reply to letters in from Family Extra on April the .. I would like to make it quite clear I am not attacking individual 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 the discussion is now under way.

I would like to invite any member of the public to bring their views to a debate scheduled for April the 25th at 7:30 p.m.

at the Site 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 know 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 field sergeant majors from the Army.

Bullying the kids into performing monkeys really it's very important that people from within communities record their own community.

If there's any bleakness in my work was bleakness that I felt The thing is, as with myself and your mom, that we were living in these marginalized communities, we were part of the co.. which was a rare thing at the time.

It was a different story when you're actually from the place you're working in, You've got the menta.. That you're photographing your people, Really, you're part of the tribe and you're trying to do your best to sort of represent the tribe in the best way.

You know, when I first saw your mom's jazz band work, I was just amazed how close she got into people she spent time with, people, which is obviously you've got to invest a lot of time Actually getting to know people before you can get Actually getting to know people before you can get 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 that work.

She would spend months and months photographing these kids and L.A., You know, there's a photograph of the guy with the cigaret hanging out of his mouth, playing cards and stuff like that.

To take a photograph, 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 them.

No tissues to work on her body of work rather than just signal which we build into the story.

You build the narrative and you build bring all these characters in, you know, and it builds a wider picture rather than just one single portrait Somber music 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 and went in this direction.

And when we got there, my brothers we saw these, my brothers jumping out of the top.. That type of activity It was all day long, nothing else for them to do that is reality.

After it was your life and.

That's And that's why We're entitled to show it.

What were you thinking about on that wall?

Do you have a favorite?

I love this one of you.

You#re stunning what was happening there.

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 16 and he was sent out to just 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 ever going to be good for.

You can see why some of these kids took to crime They were forced onto these silly schemes.

that led to nowhere.

Stop your money.

and treat them like they were little children of self serfdom.

She was seeing her brothers particularly who literally .. there were a forgotten generation of of young people.

There was nothing for them.

we were often sent for an interview.

But soon they said you from Elswick you didn't stand a chance to identify 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.

And she she she she recorded She recorded her friends and their struggles.

These young kids who couldn't get jobs, you know, they left school without any qualifications.

If they had qualifications, what job were they going to get?

there where 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's despair?

May we bring hope?

[Switch clicks] [Ominous music] High levels of unemployment have always been a hard and constant feature of life in the West End in Newcastle, the area below in the 19th century, on the basis of heavy engineering and shipbuilding.

Once at the very center 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 areas General air of dereliction and decay.

The official assessments place the actual number out of work in this area at 1700 over double the rate and comparison with the rest of Newcastle.

Approximately 1100 of these under the age of 30.

Clearly a very serious situation.

Nevertheless, the Government's Youth Opportunity Program obscures the real situation as those participating are officially termed employed and never.

and never enter the statistics.

Carl Murtha left school in summer 1979 with a number of qua.. 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 labor market.

After six weeks of constant searching for work to no avail, Carl and his mate Cuddles from the same street, receive cards from the career center, 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 £20.55 for 40 hours per week.

Hard graft.

usually in atrocious weather conditions, but the physical and mental bullying of the workers gaffers, one of whom had the strange habit of sticking brush shanks 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 night in particular was singled out for a stronger dose of this treatment he's now received in psychiatric help.

The charge and responsible for the bullying has now joined the police force.

Young people are already experiencing the problems of adoles.. are left to cope alone with a situation that the 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 permanant.

behind.

Empty pathetic talk of increased leisure opport.. and freedom from repetitive labor, stands The specter 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 moralizing.

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 the 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 intensifies 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 deprive 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 t.. will not be slow to make political capital from an embittered youth.

Should the labor movement fail to give the search for new social, economic and political values a positive and sustained direction?

Tish Murtha, May 1980.

She was really angry.

Really?

Yes.

Yes, definitely.

obviously your her youngest brother And she loves you very much.

And she was so angry at what was happening to you and all of your friends, you know, And the only thing she could do to try and help you was to shine a light.

I mean, because it got talked about in parliament.

so did she break you.

good [Sombre music] Was this whole thing about documentary photography and it's about getting stuff published as in is it kind of all 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 new is different.

Are you authentic?

Are you gritty enough?

And your mother wasn't into that type of stuff at all, You know what I mean?

I think myself and Tish were more or less seen as novelties, Really both natives of the Nordic north northeast.

And we were doing it for ourselves.

Really.

Had I came from a different background, I probably would have had more chance of of breaking it.

The the so-called art world if you don't keep for 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 the determination to see things, see things throu.. A lot of good work was done before any involvement with anything like side gall.. I got support from Northern Arts and I did 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 psych gallery for a number of reasons, but mainly because of their peculiar attitude towards me in.. Said they wanted to manipulate it to fit their group philosophy of working class culture and poverty is beautiful.

"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, his girlfriend, was getting really spiteful and b****y .. damaging, expensive photographic work by burst in the darkroom switch in lights on accidentally on purpose.

So they obviously thought it was all a big joke, I 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 in 82.

Yeah think I think so Karen.

She was a dancer, wasn't she, from Canada.

Yeah.

They were living in a shared house and my mum had got this commission from the photographer#s gallery to do this project on Soho and Sex Workers.

And Karen was working in Soho.

So they work together?

They collaborated.

Yes.

Dear Marilyn 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 Gray tea and indulged and but polite conversation.

It's most bizarre.

Anyway, we managed to behave ourselves and have been invited back.

Best wishes.

Tish Murtha.

P.S.

Soho going well, was working all night last Tuesday but was chased off by a transvestite with an ax.

We'll try again because 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.. And then these things we developed so that we had some sor.. We just clicked had a good eye I knew she could take a good pic if you know what I mean.

And then your mom 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 wo.. So, it was Mayfair and Soho, and you'd start about... eight, nine o#clock and finish about two in the morning.

Well, you do 10 minutes, ten times or 12 times a night.

A lot of them weren't licensed, but they'd have the punters drinking nonalcoholic lager, not knowing they were drinking nonalcoholic lager.

And then sometimes she'd go in and do the act again.

After you'd done circuit and still be the same, punter there with a hostess.

But the actual exhibition went down very well and a lot of the girls on the circuit came with the celebration 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.

I think even there was one of Karen outside the theater sort of standing against this light and sort of summed up it was a rainy night in the West End, you know, But people still work [Laid-back music] [Laid-back music] [Laid-back music] she was rushing around and I mean, she was you can see there how how skinny she was d'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 b.. 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 Shop in the labor room.

brought some contact Alrightts that you madeAnd Jimmy to have a look at this is so I can see why she wanted you to.

To take them.

I mean, this.

That's like you emerging.

Wow.

With your little dark hair.

it#s the birth pictures.

Their significant.

But they're not very pretty.

She loved them.

I think my absolute favorite.

And it's like, where?

Like, Oh, yeah, she's waiting to meet me.

And I just think the lighting and the lighting was terrific.

She was so approachable.

It was a lovely moment.

And it was good that your dad came along because Jimmy holding Tish, Oh, 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.

Why?

Well, Nimrod Variations, Elgar, you know, favorite classical musician.

But then you came out and you were little girl.

It's 9:00.

It's very late for a baby girl to be awake.

She should settle down now.

Oh, she'll never wake up for for Ramona and Dennis.

Goodnight, dear.

Ella I gave 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 just then became your fairy godfather.

I didn't want to be your godfather because I'm not particularly religious.

So that's why I decided to be a fairy godfather.

And you were in and out of the dark room with her, cause I can remember when you were tiny you used to watch the photos And I used to watch her develop stuff Yeah It was magical wasn#t it.

saw a statistic recently.

80% of women are in education about photography, but then actually working in it, it's only something like 15%.

And it's just interesting to try and understand why so many women can't make a copy.

I mean, it's a very male dominated.

Yeah, well, I think I know I could of and I was capable of doing it, but I couldn't with having a child because I couldn't work out how to look up, you know, I couldn't afford childminders.

It just seems so it's always women.

It's always women who have to sacrifice their careers.

I feel the time in my mum's life, you know, they should move to London.

She was having the exhibition and the photographers gallery.

She was on the cusp of huge things and obviously I wasn't planned and I arrived and I've always felt really responsible, you know, because it's difficult.

You can't with a kid in tow when you're a single mum.

No, but I do.

The other side is that Tish was given, offered opportunities.

I mean everyone recognized 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's 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.

You know, the best thing she could havDo you think?

Yeah, was she happy.

She'd loved you so much.

And you.

You were the bee's knees.

You could do everything.

You were so musical.

Yeah.

She drown you with Jazz.

Well I#m named after Ella Fitzgerald.

D'you know, like, it's... She made me feel like the most special person.

Oh, yeah.

No you were.

you were magic To start off the play, I'm just going to state who this It is Ella Murtha.

But first I#mgoing to sing Twinkle Twinkle that's my favorite 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. I am the very good singer my mommy said, 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 what you are She suddenly took you back up north.

I think she's fed up of.

Sounds silly of being poor.

She used to tell me she'd go down to the Camden market at the end of the day and pick up vegetables off the floor and thin.. 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 if Tish wasever really happy.

Well, she was very driven as well, and photography was .. 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, because you go through miserable times and she sort of spark me up.

[Tender music] Hello, David.

I have a Northern Arts Award for, 2500 paid in installments, which is basically to explore racial tension in this area.

It's a very tough one, to crack this Well, I'm taking snacks again, which is good.

This is not a good one.

I don't know.

Oh, this is interesting.

This boy here who's got his back to us, he contacted me via Instagram and he said, Oh, I think I met your mum.

And sort of like the late eighties 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 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 taken will have been these.

This is when she was in Middlesbrough.

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 thought the fact that she wrote something on the back of pictures, like a little postcard when I say her handwriting like it, I can hear much in her voice.

Yeah.

Feel like she's here.

it's unusual to see color, isn't it?

Yeah.

but She had to do color in the letters, 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.

No, no so she 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 backyard 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 would 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, to allow access to the different parts, 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 marginalized 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#ll always use money as a weapon, but there's a lot of people who actually control that particular funding.

Maybe send that in the wrong direction.

My mum's absolute favorite It is.

that#s you You look tight Are you pleased that you took them.

was he?

You just never stood a chance, d None of you.

It's.. No wonder my Mum was angry.

[Wistful music] [Music subsides] 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 younger She had that edge when she was young, and it .. [Ella] She had, like, a fire in her belly, didn't she?

I think it had been extinguished, I think, - by life and...just surviving.

- [Jos] Yes.

after Middlesbrough she moved down perhaps.

And then from there she was close to me and T side.

And then from there she was close to me and T side.

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.

- [Ella chuckles] - I mean, yeah.

- [Daisy] 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, a.. [Ruminative music] [Tish] "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."

[Music subsides] [Tony Blair] This new welfare state... ..must encourage work, not dependency.

We are giving young people and the long-term unemployed the opportunity A £3.5-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 u.. yourself It was the time... Do you remember New Deal?

Oh god Yeah.

All of that she did actually get sent and sent to a meat processing place, but she was so tired because they would do a night shift pick her up in this bus thing.

And she was hallucinating.

She was just so tired.

And the smell because, I mean, she was a vegetarian, you know, like it was.

She had so much talent and she just couldn't make a living from photography.

She just couldn't do it.

"I am now seeking a position where I am able to f.. "all of my skills and knowledge... Patricia and Martha.

"Patricia Anne Murtha - CV I'm an honest reliable and trustworthy person with the ability to work on own initiatives.

I was an effective team member, having previously completed college photography, I am now seeking a position where I am able .. all of my skills and knowledge, "To relax, I listen to music and read a variety of books.

thriving on new challenges and responsibility and versatile and adaptable and can successfully transfer my existing skills and knowledge to new situations.

Given the opportunity, Given the opportunity, I am confident that I will prove to be an asset to any future employer "Made enquiries at Aldi Chichester, for position as during my spare time.

I enjoy walking to keep fit, "January the 22nd.

to relax.

I listen to music and read a variety of books.

I like gardening and grow my own fruit and veg.

I like gardening and grow my own fruit and veg.

I'm also a keen photographer "February 14th.

Sent CV to Sodexo."

I'm also a keen photographer "February 16th.

Visited various outlets at the Gateshead retail and develop my own photos.

January the 14th, 2003 got an email number January the 14th, 2013 got an email number as requested by the Job centre "Made enquiries at Aldi Chichest for position as store assistant.

I have no retail experience, so response not very positive.

Januarary the 22nd sent CV and letter to the Punjab Kitchen.

"Eldon Street, South Shields..." - [Tish voice overlaps] I spoke to Mandy about waiting staff February the eighth.

Check the Universal job site very steadily 13th Check the Universal job site very steadily February 13th also wrote to BS February 14th also wrote to BB#s Coffee Shop February 14th and CV to Sodexo after the sixth time and CV to Sodexo February 16th visited various retail outlets at the Gateshead Retail Center visited various retail outlets at the Gateshead Retail Center to make inquiries about vacancies.

to make inquiries about vacancies.

[Water laps] She was living hand-to-mouth like I helped our record, She was living hand-to-mouth like I helped where .. but I was on maternity leave.

She spent her final few weeks trips around trying to get jobs and a kitchen.

around trying to get jobs in a kitchen.

She was terrified to turn the heating on and you know the worst thing of all, like like, it was, did she heat or did she eat.

Yes And when she died, I ended up getting a check for £100 because she'd been religiously putting this £20 on, but terrified to have the heating on.

but terrified to have the heating on.

And she was in credit.

She could have had the heating on, but she felt so worthless and like she didn't deserve to have a warm house.

So it's just like.

But, you know, when she was in a coma, right?

I remember I rang them I remember I rang them because take a breath because take a breath when I should have been when I should have been looking after her and worried about her, I was so stressed out I was so stressed out that she was going to get sanctioned while she was in the hospital and she was going to lose a house and she's in a coma.

Yeah.

So I rang them because I couldn't get any sense ouH.. I said, did you sign on on Friday?

I .. And she was she just should she just wasn't making any sense at all, which I now know is, you know, what was going on in the brain.

which I now know is, you know, what was going on .. And so I rang them and I said, Look, my mum, And so I rang them and I said, Look, my mum, she's had a brain hemorrhage, she's in a coma.

she's had a brain hemorrhage, she's in a coma.

I don't know whether she came in, signed on on Friday, I don't know whether she came in, signed on on.. but obviously pleased don#t sanction her and they just refused to talk to me.

They refused to tell me if she'd beReally They said it's against data protection.

We cannot discuss with you the way DWP and government the way they treat people.

and this government the way they treat people.

Oh, it's punishing in punitive deliberate.

She was just a number.

We're all just numbers to them.

But you know, like she was so special.

She was.

She was so she was.

She was.

She was so talented She was And they didn't care.

I just like to come here I just like to come here because it feels like going full circle.

Yeah.

That, you know, she was born here.

Yeah, she was, you know, like a happy childhood.

Memories are here.

We had happy times here on this bench.

On this benchYeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

It had to be.

[Sombre, resonant music] Tish#s Work I remember when I first looked at it, Remember that kind of thrill of what photography was and what it could do?

They clearly weren't They clearly weren't those sort of explorer pictures.

You know, you feel when someone's exploring a culture, s.. exploring working class culture, and they've just stepped in exploring working class culture, and they've just stepped in and they're going to step out back to wherever, like parachute and they're going to step out back to wherever, li.. and parachute 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'd made something which was so clear and so honest and so raw.

She was allowed to be invisible in a way that someone She was allowed to be invisible in a way that someone from the outside wouldn't be because that was her life.

Now your mum's work is central Now your mum's work is central to people's thinking about documentary photography from that period.

It's not peripheral anymore and that#s something isn#t it.

So, you know, you've been helping me with, So, you know, you've been helping me with, Clarrie and the Tate, D'you know you set up your .. I was going to ask whether you would like to print them.

I was going to ask whether you would like to prin.. Oh, God, I'd love to.

I would love you to print them for the Tate col.. That's a really nice thing.

And, yeah, gotcha.

[Music - "Vissi d'arte" by Maria] [Music continues] to actually say that Tate Britain to actually say that Tate Britain have acquired my mum's work for the permanent .. I mean, the whole thought of that is just.

It's quite overwhelming, really.

It's quite overwhelming, really.

I think she'd have loved to have seen her work I think she'd have loved to have seen her work on the wall and, you know, be recognized for just how talented she was.

for just how talented she was.

A lot of people say to me, like, that could have been me, A lot of people say to me, like, that could have been me, could have been my brother.

That could have been us.

pictures of real people, real stories, real lives.

And for it to be recognized because, .. you know, my mum's work was brilliant and I mean, I'm biased, but for other people to recognize and I mean, I'm biased, but for other people to recognize that and for Tate to recognize that, what more could you want what more could you want [Music continues] [Music, Singing continues] [Music, Singing continues] [Music, Singing continues] [Music, Singing continues] [Music, Singing continues] [Music, Singing continues] [Music, Singing continues] [Music, Singing continues]