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If Gregg Wallace is looking to sharpen up his soundbites he could do worse than enlist Eileen Murtha-Brown in Tish (BBC Four). “Your memories are black and white but the blood’s always red,” was one gem she shared as she mined her recollections of her sister, Tish Murtha, aka “The Demon Snapper”, whose striking black-and-white photographs chronicled working-class lives and struggles in the northeast in the 1970s and 1980s. 

We all like to think we are photographers these days, the digital age allowing us to rattle out images ten-a-penny hoping we’ll strike it lucky. By contrast, Tish Murtha, a political firebrand remembered affectionately but with a hint of fear, even by her nearest and dearest, had to rely on old-school equipment and her own remarkable eye to capture the lives and struggles of a community she felt had been overlooked by history. 

Her daughter, Ella, proved an empathetic guide in Tish, Paul Sng’s expertly framed documentary that’s part celebration of an overlooked talent, part study of a tumultuous political period as unemployment soared and economic recession bit deep. Through Ella we met Murtha’s extended family and gained a clear understanding of how her mother’s photographic style was forged in the fire of a world she believed was loaded against her and her like. 

What comes into sharp focus is the sheer honesty of Murtha’s images. Authenticity is an overused word nowadays but it shines through here, the inspiration drawn from the streets and people she knew intimately. It makes for a powerful and intimate portrait of an undeniable talent who deserves wider recognition, even if at times the polemic feels troweled on with a heavy hand.

“You can’t teach somebody how to have passion,” recalled one of Murtha’s former photographic tutors and it’s passion that burns off her monochrome prints, whether it’s street kids in South Shields or sex workers in Soho, one of her later projects. For all the family anecdotes and readings of Tish’s formidably trenchant view, it’s the pictures here that are worth a thousand words.

Operation Pets Alive, in partnership with Lenora Stein Photography, is happy to announce its 2025 Dog Calendar Contest! Proceeds from the sale of the calendar and photo contest will assist Operation Pets Alive with the spay and neuter of animals in the Montgomery County, Texas, area, as well as, medical bills, vaccines, and heartworm treatments for foster dogs and cats.

The Woodlands portrait photographer, Lenora Stein of Lenora Stein Photography, has chosen to partner with Operation Pets Alive for her inaugural dog photo calendar contest in an effort to raise $5,000 or more for this local rescue.

Montgomery County dog owners may enter their dog in this online contest by submitting a photo along with a $5 entry fee that is donated directly to Operation Pets Alive to help the rescue continue its efforts.

Entries and votes will be accepted from April 1 to April 26, 2024, and will be used to help determine the top 13 grand prize winners that will be photographed by Lenora Stein Photography during a professional studio portrait session to capture their image for the 2025 Operation Pets Alive Dog Calendar. The highest vote-getter will be featured on the coveted calendar cover.

A reserve-a-grid-space option for $10 is also available for those who wish to purchase an empty grid space and guarantee their pet a small square in the 2025 calendar.

The calendar contest fundraising goal is set at $5,000, all of which will benefit Operation Pets Alive and programs like Flight for Life, Pups on Trucks, adoptions, foster care, and more.

Copies of the 2025 Operation Pets Alive Dog Calendar will be available mid-September 2024 once Lenora completes photographing all 13 grand prize winners.

For more information on this fundraiser, please visit https://www.gogophotocontest.com/operationpetsalive2025 or contact Lenora Stein with Lenora Stein Photography at 713-417-1633 or lenora@LenoraSteinPhotography.com.

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About Operation Pets Alive

Operation Pets Alive (OPA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer organization striving to elevate Montgomery County to a No-Kill community through innovative programs that raise community awareness, reduce the number of dogs and cats who enter our shelters and increase the number of dogs and cats who leave our shelters alive.

At OPA, we depend entirely on volunteers to implement our life-saving work. Each year, we rescue thousands of homeless pets, and impact the lives of hundreds more through our Core Programs. All thanks to countless volunteer hours. Join us and learn how you can make a difference in the lives of the homeless animals of Montgomery County by visiting operationpetsalive.org or following us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter).

About Lenora Stein Photography

Lenora Stein is the owner and photographer of Lenora Stein Photography, which celebrates the joy and love between Texas pets and their people. Lenora specializes in both studio and on-location sessions throughout The Woodlands, Spring, and greater Houston areas. She loves helping pet parents decorate their home and office with beautiful signature wall art, fine art albums, and other heirloom products that showcase the ones they love most.

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The date was Jan. 29, 2009, and Pat Quinn was sitting at his desk in the lieutenant governor’s office, writing notes for what would become his inaugural speech as governor while the state Senate, one floor above, considered voting to remove Rod Blagojevich from office.

A few feet away, camera in hand, was Springfield resident Lee Milner, capturing the scene from a pivotal moment in Illinois history.

That day’s Chicago Sun-Times sat on Quinn’s desk. The top headline, “His Last Stand,” referred to the ultimately futile speech Blagojevich would give in the state Senate chamber in Springfield before senators voted 59-0 to oust the disgraced Democratic governor as the final step of impeachment.

For Milner, who at 64 was volunteering his time as Quinn’s photographer and later would send the photographs to the Illinois State Archives, recording history was just his latest efforts at “making a difference.” 

Throughout his life, he would do just that by harnessing his work ethic, kind personality, self-deprecating humor and wide-ranging experience as a communicator and volunteer for state government, civic groups and nonprofits.

Now 78 and in declining health, Milner, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2019, is reflective.

“I’m very fortunate in all kinds of respects,” he said. “I’m fortunate in what I’ve been able to do, who I’ve been able to meet, who I’ve been able to help, friends I’ve met along the way.”

Referring to lyrics from a Garth Brooks song, Milner said with a chuckle, “I’ve got friends in high places, not low places.”

He added: “Most of the people I’ve been around, I’ve been around leaders, being involved in the issues of the day, watching some very bright people perform. People like me help them stay ‘on message’ and get things across to the people.”

Readers of Illinois Times often have seen Milner’s work as a freelance photojournalist. But they may not realize they are viewing the work of someone known and respected by people in public life throughout Springfield and beyond for years.

“Lee is a man for all seasons,” Quinn, 75, said in a phone interview from Chicago. “He’s not a show horse or someone with braggadocio. He’s a down-to-earth, caring person. … I really, really, really enjoyed working with him. He’s a lot of fun.

“I think it’s a testament to his faith and stamina and just his good nature that he’s been able to battle this disease for as long as he has, and everybody’s rooting for him.”

Milner was born in Breese, the third of five children born to a Methodist minister father and homemaker mother. He graduated from high school in Beecher City in Effingham County and earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He worked as a photojournalist for the Effingham Daily News, where he met many state lawmakers, before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968.

Milner never went overseas where the Vietnam War was raging. He served his two-year hitch as a clerk and photojournalist at Army bases in North Carolina and South Carolina. After discharge, he attended the now-closed MacMurray College in Jacksonville, where one of his brothers was a professor. After a semester, he got a job at Memorial Health in Springfield as a photographer for a pathologist, Dr. Grant Johnson, at the recently opened Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

After several years of taking photos of surgeries, autopsies and Sangamon County coroner’s death investigations, Milner moved to Washington, D.C. He began working as a legislative coordinator for former U.S. House member George Shipley, a Democrat from Olney, whom Milner met while working in Effingham.

After a year, Milner returned to Springfield to marry Cindy Young, his wife of 49 years and now a state retiree, whom he met while working for Memorial. They would have two children, James, 39, a filmmaker, and Leanne Sappington, 42, an events coordinator. Milner’s children, and his 11-year-old grandson, Leanne’s son, all live in the Los Angeles area.

After Milner came back to Springfield from Washington, a legislator friend of his asked then-state Rep. Bill Redmond, a DuPage County Democrat who had recently been elected speaker of the Illinois House and was building out his staff, to consider hiring Milner.

Milner became Redmond’s assistant press secretary and worked for Redmond from 1975 to 1979.

“I loved it,” Milner said. “It was where the action was. There were some very intelligent, articulate people that went through the House of Representatives and went farther, as a lot of them did. So it was just exciting to be in a position like that and to think you were helping the community by helping people who were trying to do their best. I think that’s a place where you can do some real good.”

The legislature was a less-partisan place then, he said. It was before the passage of the 1980 Cutback Amendment, backed by Quinn, which reduced the size of the House by one-third. The constitutional amendment also eliminated three-member districts and cumulative, or “bullet” voting, which often resulted in at least one member of a different party representing a district.

While working for Redmond, Milner witnessed a rapt audience when former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley addressed the General Assembly.

A visit to the legislature by then-President Jimmy Carter also was memorable.

“I can’t get past his smile,” Milner said with a laugh. “He always had the best smile. He was very cordial to everybody, as I recall.”

Redmond encouraged Milner to apply to lead the communications office at the Illinois State Board of Education – “not because he wanted to get rid of me, but because he thought it would be a good opportunity,” Milner said.

The education agency had been reorganized when the state superintendent of schools position became a gubernatorial appointment rather than a statewide elected position.

Milner was hired in 1979 and would work there until his retirement in 2004, serving more than a half-dozen superintendents, including Joseph Cronin, Joseph Spagnolo, Glenn “Max” McGee and Ted Sanders, the father of current State Superintendent Tony Sanders.

Answering questions from reporters could be stressful, especially when the topics involved could make the state board look bad, but Milner said his work with reporters rarely created tension with state superintendents and his other bosses.

“In most cases, we got along just fine and decided how to approach issues,” he said. “I knew what the reporters were interested in.”

Milner worked for the agency at a time when spokespersons in state government frequently spoke to reporters for attribution, instead of the current practice of frequently resorting to written statements, emails and text messages. Milner said he tried to cultivate professional relationships with the media to promote trust.

“I don’t know if I’m cut out for it or not, but it worked out well,” Milner said. “I like reporters, and I respect what they do. And the most important thing to think about is what reporters can make out of what you do – the good and the bad.”

WBEZ reporter Dave McKinney, a longtime Statehouse reporter for the Sun-Times, said Milner “showed utmost professionalism” at the State Board of Education. “His word was gold. He was accessible, and there was never any skepticism on my part that I wasn’t being told the truth.” 

Milner’s activities since retirement from the state included volunteer work with Network Knowledge, SIU Illinois State Employees Credit Union and the FBI Springfield Citizens Academy Alumni Association, which named its award of excellence after him. 

His freelancing included photos for an Illinois news organization at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver when then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Chicago was nominated for what would become his first term as president.  

Milner said he volunteered his services for Quinn because the newly sworn-in governor, who ended up serving for six years, didn’t have a downstate photographer, and Milner was acquainted with members of Quinn’s staff.

“To be frank, I don’t think they cared if they had pictures,” Milner said, adding that Quinn “was not like a Blagojevich running out there to get his picture taken. His ideas are what he wanted out. I told them, ‘If you are in central or southern Illinois, let me know and I’ll do what I can.’”

Quinn said he liked having Milner around.

“He has a divine gift – his ability to not just take photos but take evocative photos, pictures that really bring out the people at the event and how they look and feel,” Quinn said.

“Lee is very discreet,” Quinn said. “He’s not a loud person. He’s very modest and polite and courteous – all the things you teach your kids to be. He embodies that. We’re lucky that God sent him our way.”

When asked how he would like to be remembered, Milner paused for about 30 seconds, then said: “I certainly would like to be remembered as a good father with successful kids, a good husband, and I suppose a loyal worker, and mostly as a helper.”

Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at 217-679-7810, dolsen@illinoistimes.com or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.