Shirley Baker’s striking shots
At first glance, Shirley Baker pictures canada goose uk black friday could be of a war zone perhaps Britain Canada Goose sale during the Blitz, or some ghostly dystopia. They seem to show normal uk canada goose outlet people carrying on as the place they Canada Goose Parka call home is violently destroyed.
canada goose kensington parka uk But Baker who is posthumously remembered as Britain first female street photographer wasn a capturing a conflict. Instead, she was shooting the streets of Salford in what is now Greater Manchester, which she focused on from 1961 to 1981. Her images show children at play, mothers chatting as they hang the washing, elderly men feeding pigeons all surrounded by houses that are being razed, the result of post war slum clearances by the British government. canada goose kensington parka uk
Many of her images are currently on at the Photographers Gallery in London, which is Canada Goose online celebrating her 65 year career with the exhibition Shirley Baker: Women, Children and Loitering Men.
canada goose outlet usa streets were disappearing, Baker said in an interview. I hoped to capture Canada Goose Online some trace of the everyday life of the people who lived there. I wanted to photograph the mundane, even trivial aspects of life not being recorded canada goose by anyone else. My sympathies lay with the people who were forced to exist miserably, often on end, sometimes years, whilst demolition went on cheap canada goose uk all around them. Whole streets were disappearing. I hoped to capture some trace of the people who lived there canada goose outlet usa
Built to house the families who moved to Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, the tightly packed terraced streets were classed as slums when Baker arrived with her camera in 1961. cheap Canada Goose The government began to clear slums in the 1930s, resuming again soon after the World War Two. Between 1955 and 1975, around 1.3 million homes were demolished.
canada goose coats uk View image of Manchester, 1968 (Credit: Credit: Shirley Baker Estate/Mary Evans Picture LIbrary) canada goose coats uk
canada goose outlet toronto factory Baker photographs are celebrations of youth, shared community and the canada goose clearance enduring ability of people to get by canada goose outlet toronto factory
canada goose outlet us street would be half pulled down and Canada Goose Coats On Sale the remnants set on fire while people were still living in the area, Baker said in an interview shortly before her death at the age of 82 in September 2014. And many of Baker subjects didn know they were entitled to uk canada goose benefits. squatted in old buildings, trying to hang on to the life they knew. They didn’t have much. Things were decided for them, she said. canada goose outlet us
canada goose outlet eu Baker photographs are not rallying cries of social injustice, but small celebrations of youth and innocence, shared community and the enduring ability of people to get canada goose coats by regardless of buy canada goose jacket cheap their canada goose black friday sale environment. canada goose outlet eu
canada goose outlet miami View image of Hulme, 1965 (Credit: Credit: Shirley Baker Estate/Mary Evans Picture Library) canada goose outlet miami
canada goose outlet online store review There are no playgrounds in Baker photographs, for example. Instead, Baker shows girls pushing prams past piles of rubble or turning a lamppost into a swing, and young boys playing cricket Canada Goose Jackets on cracked pavements or gleefully helping to demolish the homes of their community. canada goose outlet online store review
canada goose outlet online store View image of Manchester, 1964 (Credit: Credit: Shirley Baker Estate/Mary Evans Picture Library) canada goose outlet online store
empathy evidenced in Shirley Baker images belies a deep rooted commitment and tenacity that produced some of the most powerful images of a generation, says Brett Rogers, director of the Photographers Gallery. relationship with the communities she worked with is both respectful and revealing. The harsh conditions in the dilapidated houses and desolate landscapes remain secondary to the relationships that were built within and in spite of them. The daughter of a successful furniture maker and his wife, she enjoyed a relatively privileged upbringing. She and her identical twin sister Barbara were educated as boarders in Wales before they were evacuated to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire during WWII.
canada goose outlet mall Baker started to take pictures when she was given a camera by an uncle at the age of eight. She began photographing the people that worked for her father business, and in the Canada Goose Outlet surrounding streets of Salford. canada goose outlet mall
canada goose outlet official View image of Manchester, 1967 (Credit: Credit: Shirley Baker Estate) canada goose outlet official
canada goose parka uk After finishing school, she decided to pursue an artistic profession. But Baker never promoted her own work. Indeed, for much of her career, she worked almost in secret, actively keeping her photography to herself: she never even displayed any of her photographs in her own home. canada goose parka uk
canada goose outlet 80 off Baker never displayed any of her photographs in her own home canada goose outlet 80 off
canada goose factory outlet Working in an era when women were not expected to take photographs outside of the home, Baker endured plenty of rejection. After studying photography Cheap Canada Goose UK at Manchester College of Technology (with only one other woman on the course) she worked as a photographer for a local fabric manufacturer, recording processes and producing promotional images. canada goose factory outlet
canada goose vest outlet It proved canada goose store a dispiriting experience. a way I had to unlearn what I had learnt on the course, and it took me a very long canada goose uk outlet time, canada goose coats on sale she once said. canada goose vest outlet
View image of Manchester, 1963 (Credit: Credit: Shirley Baker Estate/Mary Evans Picture Library)
canada goose outlet sale She began tentatively freelancing as a photojournalist, but was consistently denied a press card. At the time, photojournalism was seen as a man profession; if canada goose uk shop women worked in photography at all, they did so in more canadagoose-outlet.co.uk fields, like fashion or domestic life. Baker began to close herself off from the established photography industry, ceasing to pursue full canada goose factory sale time, paid jobs in photojournalism. canada goose outlet sale
canada goose jacket outlet uk Pursuing what was seen as a man profession, she was consistently denied a press card canada goose jacket outlet uk
canada goose outlet toronto location In 1957, Baker married Tony Levy, a local doctor, and settled buy canada goose jacket into family life in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Their daughter Nan was born in 1963. Baker continued to spend days on end on the streets of inner city Salford, creating a body of work now considered among the defining photography of the era. canada goose outlet toronto location
canada goose outlet store quebec View image of Hulme, July 1965 (Credit: Credit: Shirley Baker Estate) canada goose outlet store quebec
canada goose outlet reviews described the streets, to me, as like her second home, says Anna Douglas, curator of Women, Children and Loitering Men and a friend of Baker knew she wasn of these people, but yet she felt phenomenally at ease with them. This is not the kind of imagery you would get from a press photographer, because Shirley spent years there. She wasn in a rush, and they weren in a rush. photography is the result of years of investment in and engagement with her subjects some of whom were so familiar with her presence, they seem not to see her at all canada goose outlet reviews.
