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In Tish Murtha’s Youth Unemployment series, shot in Newcastle between 1979 and 1981, young men slouch and smile, cigarettes hanging from their fingertips as they study a hand of cards or share a private joke. Beside Murtha’s images in this show, a film by photographer Kuba Ryniewicz finds present-day residents of Newcastle and asks them what has made them happy today. The subjects talk about the sun, breakfast, connecting with friends and family. The answers are almost universal, and you could imagine the subjects of Murtha’s photographs responding in the same way.

Despite more than 40 years dividing these projects, they both capture the human pursuit of joy, no matter the circumstances, and the desire to seek comfort in the company of others. Both Ryniewicz and Murtha are celebrated for capturing their communities. Their ability to shoot raw, real, unflinching moments derives from the fact that they were there, living among it. It is this similar approach – and the fact that they both photograph residents of Newcastle – that has placed them together in an exhibition at the Baltic entitled Close to Home.

Murtha is these days well known for her powerful photographs of the city in the 1970s and 80s, when it was undergoing radical change, industry was declining and unemployment rising. Her striking photographs of working-class life are honest and vibrant; they focus on individuals and detail the resilience of human connection in the face of extreme external pressures. Murtha died in 2013, and Close to Home features four of her most important collections – Elswick Kids, Save Scotswood Works, Youth Unemployment and Elswick Revisited – exhibiting them together in the north-east for the first time.

Rather than displayed in neat rows, Murtha’s photographs are presented in an assortment of sizes hung together in a salon style, with each series featuring one enlarged image covering nearly an entire wall. Such a hang is dynamic and exciting, allowing us to see an entire series in one glance. In Elswick Kids, girls dressed in paisley prints skip down a cobbled street, a child swings off the roof of a burned-out car, several children stand along a smashed bay window, boys lean against a brick wall with the words “Muggers corner” scrawled on it.

For Save Scotswood Works, campaign bulletins, articles and letters have been mixed with the photographs, highlighting the significance of both the protest and Murtha’s documentation of it. Segments from the Tish documentary by Paul Sng play alongside the Save Scotswood Works and Youth Unemployment collections, capturing Murtha’s own thoughts about her practice and her disgust at failing government policy. When listening to her essay Youth Unemployment in the West End of Newcastle while looking at young men gazing vacantly over broom handles or looking despondent outside the Careers Centre, you can feel the fire behind her decision to take these photographs.

Around Murtha’s work, we find Ryniewicz’s photographs – his Polaroids and prints of varied sizes dance around the room, popping up between Murtha’s collections, primarily glued directly to the wall with no frames. Born in Poland, Ryniewicz moved to Newcastle in 2004 to study photography and for Close to Home he presents new works along with an assortment of images from three series: Daily Weeding, Cornered Study and Good Eggs – all shot within the past six years.

Ryniewicz’s mesmerising photographs burst with life. They are vivid, colourful and cheeky, full of flesh and texture and optimism. He photographs weeds, and buses, and baby bumps, and shadows in suburbia – ordinary, everyday life transforms into a magical utopia under his gaze. A cow stands bemused beneath an office block; a yellow, faded bruise around an eye matches perfectly with a bleached hairstyle; a sunbathing young man glistens against mottled grass, his tattoo “stars can’t shine without darkness” fills us with hope.

The problem with Close to Home is that whatever “home” is and how you capture it is very different to Murtha and Ryniewicz. This makes an overarching narrative almost impossible to establish. For example, on one wall we see a procession of people in Newcastle city centre protesting the closure of Scotswood Works, and on the opposite wall a guinea pig snuggles into a man’s hairy chest. Meanwhile, Murtha’s brother clears away beer bottles at the kitchen sink opposite a full-colour image of a protruding pregnant belly bumping into a vase of flowers. It’s tricky to join the dots.

Even when there is a momentary spark – as with Ryniewicz’s film and the Youth Unemployment series – one can’t escape the dark forces that linger at the edges of Murtha’s photographs and this grates against the playfulness of Ryniewicz’s images. You can’t pair the mother pressing her temples, or the boy staring out of an abandoned house with someone discussing the joy of painting or hugging trees.

The wall text does nothing to assist. While Murtha’s photographs are largely discussed in very factual, historical terms, Ryniewicz’s are described more conceptually, focusing on his approach and materiality. Murtha’s works are displayed in contained collections and Ryniewicz’s are dotted randomly throughout. Murtha shoots off-the-cuff, Ryniewicz’s images are often staged. The list could go on.

One gets the impression Ryniewicz has had to bend his practice around Murtha’s stonking great chunks of history – and he has. He has installed his photographs around hers, so despite the equal billing, it is Murtha’s work that has established the tone and Ryniewicz’s that has to keep up.

It is a worthwhile endeavour, searching for a contemporary conversation for Murtha’s work, but Close to Home feels quite far off the mark. That Murtha and Ryniewicz are outstanding photographers is indisputable; that they cohere effectively in this exhibition is less convincing.

• At Baltic, Gateshead, until 4 April 2027