A major new Tish Murtha publication from British Culture Archive, created in collaboration with the Tish Murtha Archive. Reworking Murtha’s landmark Youth Unemployment series, this new edition brings one of the most vital bodies of work in British documentary photography back into focus for a new generation.
The first 1,000 pre-orders will receive an exclusive fine art card of the cover.
Tish Murtha’s photographs remain among the most powerful accounts of working-class life in Britain. Made from within the community she documented, the work carries both urgency and intimacy, holding together social reality, lived experience and extraordinary photographic force.
This new edition brings that landmark body of work back into print in a newly reworked publication, with a new sequence, updated texts and a renewed sense of purpose for a new generation of readers. Published by British Culture Archive in collaboration with the Tish Murtha Archive, Vandalism on a Grand Scale returns one of the defining works of British documentary photography to circulation.
Published by BCA in collaboration with the Tish Murtha Archive, this major new title is available exclusively through British Culture Archive. With a bold new title drawn from the closing line of Murtha’s accompanying essay, the book brings one of the defining works of British documentary photography back into circulation with renewed clarity, urgency and force as a substantial case-bound hardback, it has been made as a lasting publication worthy of Murtha’s landmark body of work.
“Since the original book went out of print, I’ve been asked so many times if I’d ever make another. For a long time, I didn’t feel ready, but returning to the series now, with British Culture Archive, who believe so deeply in the work, has felt very special. I’m so proud of what we’ve created together for my mam.”
Ella Murtha.