Tish Murtha

Tish Murtha was born in March 1956 and is best known for her work of documentary photography in the North East of England. Her style of work includes her being inside these communities and capturing various situations as they unfold.

Her work has great depth and meaning with the majority of her images including people, typically showing a still of an event occuring. I particularly like the way Murtha blends the setting with the characters to create one cohesive piece. Her work shows life as if you are seeing the communities from the inside. Her various projects all show the reality of life in the North and this sheds light into what happened during this time.

This particular image interests me as there are various points of focus in the foreground, mid-ground and background. In focus is a lone woman looking in the distance. She appears to be deep in thought. In the mid-ground, there seems to be a crowd of people playing or conversing. Each part of the image sets completely separate tones and without the other, I do not think this image would be as effective to the audience. I like the way in a single image,  there are various focal points. 

I particularly want to take inspiration from Murtha with regards to how she tells a story with the people in these images, just from one still.