Kids at Elswick Road Post Office. From the series Youth Unemployment (1981) by Tish Murtha.

Available from a limited edition of 50 hand numbered prints from our collaboration with the Tish Murtha Archive. https://britishculturearchive.co.uk/.../tish-murtha.../

Photo © Ella Murtha, all rights reserved.


Isn't this just what street photography is all about?
I must say I think it is brilliant. So many stories here. So many things you might attribute to each of them in the photo. So many questions unanswered.

 

It've heard it said that you can tell a good street photograph by the fact that it smells. Well, I think I can smell that photo.

 

Ha! Yes, I know what you mean - I can smell both sides of that photo!

 

Image doesn't load for me for some reason, but I think it's this one.


https://britishculturearchive.co.uk...-unemployment-1981-tish-murtha-limited-print/

 

That's the one. In street photography "genre" terms, that's probably one of her best, but my personal favourite is probably:



Lord of the flies mayhem against a geometric backdrop, but what really makes that picture, of course, is the ventriloquist's dummy/doll thing at bottom left. What is it? What's it doing there? And, most important, does it have magical powers that decide whether the kids jumping from the upstairs window survive or not?

 

Great images with a real feel of the time. I know I've seen an exhibition of her work but not sure where... Maybe the photographers gallery.

 

Drinking milk from a glass bottle? Arguably nothing dates as quickly as street photography (not a criticism, merely an observation).
Perhaps the adult was once their schoolteacher who wanders if all his efforts were wasted.

 

You can still get full cream gorgeous Guernsey? milk in the Co-op - in glass bottles. Definitely a yes for porridge!

 

I can tell you what it is. It is Mr Parlanchin. I had one as a child in the '70's. two years ago my wife bought an old one on Ebay for me for a Christmas present.

Here is mine on display in our kitchen.

Dummy by Nigel G, on Flickr

Great photo's both of them though. I love them both for different reasons.

 

ITYM pushed.

 

The thing about the top picture is the way the guy in the middle of the young group reminds me of someone I used to work for. Strangely enough he was born in Paisley - but a generation before the photo. It's rather spooky.

 

The gent with the specs reminds me of someone I used to work with