A joint exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle celebrates the work of photographer Tish Murtha, one of Tyneside's most important image-makers. The show, curated by Kuba Ryniewicz, highlights Murtha's documentary-style photographs capturing working-class life in the North East of England during the 1970s and 1980s.
The exhibition matters because it brings renewed attention to Murtha's legacy, which has often been overlooked in mainstream art history. Her empathetic yet unflinching portraits of communities affected by deindustrialization offer a vital counter-narrative to dominant photographic traditions, and the show underscores the growing recognition of regional British photographers in the contemporary art world.