Tabitha Jussa

Central Park, New York City 2018

Tabitha Jussa‘s work examines the relationship between people, place, space and time. By questioning the traditions of film and digital photography Jussa’s fascination with how people transform place and vice versa is also shaped by her approach to documenting and ultimately making pictures - how photography can be used to explore socio-political challenges evolves alongside the people, places and spaces she explores.By creatively fusing together traditional film and digital photography, Jussa has developed her own way of image making.
Her work offers a different approach to documentary photography, bridging the gap between contemporary and traditional photography. Her knowledge and skillset of film and printing includes darkroom techniques stretching back to the earliest days of photography alongside digital processes.Jussa’s series Agency of Women, consisting of hand-coloured portraits, was made during an artist residency at the National Trust property Hardmans’ House in 2019 is featured in multiple National Trust publications and several works are now in the National Trust’s photography collection.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at The Open Eye, Liverpool, ShangART Gallery, Shanghai, House of Commons, Westminster, The Grundy, Blackpool and Ffotogallery, Penarth.
She was the recipient of the Liverpool Art Prize Judges and People’s Choice award in 2013; curated the ‘Common Ground’ exhibition showing alongside Tom Wood and Ken Grant in 2018.

Education
2009 – 2011 MA Doc Phot - University of South West Wales
1995 – 1998 BA (hons) Fashion - University of WestminsterSelected Awards & Residencies
2019 Arts Council England for Agency of Women
2019 National Trust Artist in Residence - Hardmans' House, Liverpool.
2019 Residency with StoryHack, Liverpool John Moores University.
2018 Liverpool City Council for Common Ground
2015 Arts Council England for MoU
2014 Liverpool Arts Prize - winner of Judges and Peoples Choice awardSelected Commissions
2018 '209 Women' Female MP Portraiture
2017 Artworks for The Royal Liverpool University HospitalSelected Solo Exhibitions
2024 'Match Day' - Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead
2022 'Agency of Women' - Hardmans' House, Liverpool
2016 'Let in Light' - CASC, Chester
2015 'Memorandum of Understanding' - Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
2009 ‘One City, One Goal’ – Liverpool Echo Arena, Liverpool
2008 ‘The 12th Man’ – The Picton Reading Room, Central Library, The Winslow, Goodison Road & The King Harry, Anfield Road, Liverpool
2006 ‘Turning Tides’ – Blackburne House & The Casa, LiverpoolSelected Group Exhibitions
2023 'Refound: Bringing the Art of the North West Home.' - Modern Art Chester & Chester Visual Arts Space, Grosvenor Centre, Chester
2023 'Lost, Found, Given ~ Stored, Shown, Seen: Artists' Responses to the West Cheshire Museums' Collection - Grosvenor Museum, Chester
2019 'Can't See the Wood for the Trees' - Look Photo Biennial 2019, Victoria Gallery and Museum, Liverpool
2019 '209 Women' – Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool & House of Commons, London
2018 'Bathroom Darkroom Project' The Grosvenor Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University
2018 'Counter Culture' - John Lennon Building, LJMU, Liverpool
2017 'Techne: Creating Art' - The Grosvenor Museum, Chester
2016 'Fieldwork Photography Symposium' - UCLAN University of Central Lancashire
2015 'Modern History vol. 1' Curated by Lynda Morris - The Grundy, Blackpool
2014 'Techne' - The Gallery at St Georges House, Bolton
2014 'Liverpool Art Prize 2014' - Winner of the Judges & People’s Choice award
2013 'Made in Liverpool' - Liverpool Photography Festival Look 13
2013 'In Parallel' - St George's Hall, Liverpool. Look 13 'Parallel
2013 'A Lecture Upon The Shadow' - Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
2012 '100 Years Of Newport' - University of Wales, Newport
2012 'A Lecture Upon The Shadow' - ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai
2011 'Reflex 2' - Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff
2011 'Show me the Monet' - Finalists Exhibition, Royal College of Art & BBC 2
2011 'Football on Merseyside' - Museum of Liverpool
2010 'Terra Marique' - Ffotogallery, Penarth
2008 'Football - On the Edge of Passion'– FACT Centre, LiverpoolWork in Collections
National Trust
Peter Gordon Private CollectionBibliography
2024 NSEAD magazine ‘Under the Green Light – a darkroom for the future’
2024 iJADE ‘Quick, Quick, Slow: Making Time for Sustainable Photography Practices in Contemporary Higher Education
2024 National Trust ‘100 Photographs from the collection of the National Trust’
2019 Tilt ‘Agency of Women’ special edition

Crosby Marina, Liverpool 2018

Agency of Women

Tabitha Jussa’s ‘Agency of Women’ project celebrates the female leadership behind the success of Liverpool’s cultural sectors. By exploring the archive of formal portraiture taken by Liverpool society photographers E. Chambré and Margaret Hardman in the mid-20th century, by using contemporary portraiture to highlight the creative women blazing a trail in the city today.Jussa was selected as the first artist-in-residence at the Hardmans’ House - a National Trust property in Liverpool. The Hardmans’ House is the last remaining professional photographic studio and domestic setting of its type in the UK and was occupied by Edward and Margaret Chambré Hardman from the 1940s. During a career spanning nearly 50 years, the Hardmans’ collection, held at Liverpool Records Office archive, contains over 140,000 photographs. The residency will provide an opportunity for Tabitha to explore both the Hardmans’ House and the photographic collection of Edward and Margaret Chambré Hardman.Jussa responded to the collection by producing portraits within the properties original professional studio space, re-visiting traditional photographic techniques to celebrate prominent present day female figures within the cultural sector of Liverpool. With a particular focus on portraits of women, often designed to convey social or professional status, and the technique of hand colouring, the collection was used as a tool for technical reference and a source of artistic inspiration. The project is titled ‘Agency of Women.’This project marks Tabitha’s first artist in residence commission for the National Trust and was awarded Arts Council England funding. Portraits from this series are now within the National Trust’s photography archive and feature within several publications.

Memorandum of Understanding

The ability to map our sense of belonging through the physical landscape is something we might take for granted. When change suddenly occurs it can evoke a real sense of loss. On occasion the destruction of certain buildings can cause a gut-wrenching reaction, as if something of ones self has been violently removed.

Victoria Clock Tower, Liverpool. 2014. 107cm x 223cm

Victoria Clock Tower, Liverpool. 2014. 107cm x 223cm

The connection to the past is lost not only physically, but also mentally. The landscape has been thrown into a state of flux. What was once known is unknown. There is an immediate inability to connect with this new place, a space where the past exists only in the memory.How much do we need a continual reminder of our past, in order to carry every generation, past and present, into the future? Do these physical reference points of our environment ensure that everyone is connected, has a sense of belonging and is able to identify with others as well as with oneself?This work considers the landscapes of Liverpool and Shanghai.

Match Day

Match Day is a body of work consisting of constructed narratives of ritual behaviour set against a backdrop of football grounds across the country.These new realities are presented as large-scale photographs that begin to reveal the minutiae of ritual within crowd behaviour alongside newly formed narratives and relationships between people and place.I am interested in the emotionally intense, optimistic uncertainty shared by thousands of individuals and the way this shapes itself physically.

Common Ground

30 Years of Football and Social Change on Merseyside.Football is a global passion that connects people from all walks of life. It is a common thread that can be an important ritual spanning across cultures, religion, gender and race. Football is synonymous with Merseyside. It is one of the most profitable cultural attractions that Liverpool has to offer, with a worldwide fan base that make regular pilgrimages to Anfield and Goodison Park.The exhibition explored the ritualistic behavior of football fan culture and its development from the game of the working class in the 1980s to the riches of the Premier League today.Captured by three photographers across different decades, the images will offer a unique insight into how the locale has evolved alongside the might of the now multi-million pound football industry and serve as a springboard to discussions about a wider fan culture that encompasses music, fashion and politics.

Common Ground: 30 Years of Football and Social Change on Merseyside.

Let in Light

Let in Light: socio political examination of housing stock and principles“Let in light and sunshine to the dwellings of the people, and with the light will come health. Without health there can be very little happiness.”
Count Derby, 1912.The Count and Countess of Derby officially opened Eldon Grove, situated close to Liverpool’s docks, in 1912 with an altruistic vision of offering Liverpool’s workers decent housing centred on community.Although the seemingly utopian vision of ‘let in light’ was a ploy to ensure productivity and ultimately profits, conversely, it did offer a strong foundation for community development. Liverpool Corporation became an innovator in its social housing policy.Subsequent housing policies have taken us from boom to blight. Housing stock has moved into tenant management, private ownership with the right to buy or been allowed to dilapidate ahead of European financed regeneration.This body of works seeks to examine a selection of locations in Liverpool that reflect upon the management of the people and the spaces of the city past, present and future highlighting triumphs, failures and short sightedness within society both physically and metaphysically in the treatment of people and place, acting out local governmental practice and central governmental policies.

Contact

For commissions, editioned print enquiries, contact

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