Shirley Baker (Photographer Research)

Fundamental changes were taking place when I first started taking photographs in the streets of Manchester and Salford in the early Sixties. Homes were being demolished due to a huge ‘slum’ clearance programme, but some streets had not yet reached the last stages of decay before demolition so I was lucky to be able to capture something of the traditional way of life before the great upheaval. – Shirley Baker

Growing up in the post war era Shirley developed a love for Photography at the age of 8. She was given a Brownie camera by her uncle and developed her first photo in a coal shed. Shirley started at the Manchester College of Technology studying Pure Photography, later in her career she started teaching at Salford College of Arts. While she was there she was photographing people living and working in Manchester and Salford during the slum clearance of the area. It would not be until 1986 that her work would be more well known to the public, but she still remained underexposed in the most part considering how good her work is.

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Slum Clearance

As I said, Shirley took a lot of photographs during the slum clearance. I particularly like this because the pictures are brutally honest with how the times were with rubble every where and kids playing on them, as that was the norm back then. It also emphasised how poor and unkempt these areas are and this can still be seen today, just not as obvious.

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Comparison from 1960's to 2000's

Shirley wrote a book in 2000 called "Streets & Spaces Urban Photography". Within the book she shows her work from the 1960's and does homage to them by recreating her shots but in a modern urban setting. I plan to recreate one of her photos as well (It'll be in my next blog post). Here's a couple of examples I found within her book

1965 Version

Both these images extracted from her book are of doors that look to be destroyed. The one on the left was shot in 1965 and the other in 2000

Here is another example of her comparison series, this one is of kids skipping.

In my opinion Shirley's work in street photography is some of the best I've seen and speaks to me the most as it shows a lot from our recent history that is still present in today's society.

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Bibliography.

Images:

Unknown. 2017 "Shirley Baker: Women and Children; and Loitering Men" by http://manchesterartgallery.org/exhibitions-and-events/exhibition/shirley-baker/. [26/09/18 22.38]

http://shirleybakerphotography.com [26/09/18 22.41]

http://shirleybakerphotography.com/the-street-photographs/ [26/09/18 22.42]

Baker, S. (2000) Streets & Spaces Urban Photography. Salford: Lowry Press. pp61 pp63 pp18-19

Quote:

Baker, S. (2000) Streets & Spaces Urban Photography. Salford: Lowry Press. pp4