[4] In 1976, aged 20, she left home to study at the School of Documentary Photography at The University of Wales, Newport, set up by Magnum Photos member David Hurn.

Unlike other photographers who came to document poverty in the region, Murtha lived it as the third of ten children of Irish descent, brought up in a council house in Elswick in Newcastle.

[11] Around this time Murtha was also commissioned to document the campaign Save Scotswood Works (1979)[8] and provided photographs for the THAC (Tyneside Housing Aid Centre) publications Do you know what this is doing to my little girl?

She also photographed emerging celebrities Julian Clary and Philip Herbert and took the first headshots of a young Declan Donnelly upon her return to the north east in 1987.

Paul Reas and Lulu Preece at University of South Wales began scanning the Tish Murtha archive,[23] which contains thousands of previously unseen images.