Inside the Archive of Often Overlooked Street Photographer Shirley Baker

’s photos of the Great Depression. In Salford and Manchester during these decades, neighbourhood bonds were being torn apart by the piecemeal demolition of decrepit, maligned Victorian terraces which still bore the scars of the Blitz. “Streets were disappearing and I hoped to capture some trace of the everyday life of the people who lived there,” the photographer once said. “I wanted to photograph the mundane, even trivial aspects of life not being recorded by anyone else.

The world Baker depicts is caught in a seemingly endless summer afternoon. But while she’s idling the streets, she’s drawn to the people: children playing between washing lines and burnt-out cars; grandmothers watching furtively from doorways; men are notable by their absence. Yet Baker always maintained the importance of truth over myth.

During Baker’s lifetime, her work was exhibited only a handful of times. She worked mainly as a freelancer, writing with distinct irony that this at least gave her the ‘illusion’ of creative freedom. In fact, she tried often to exhibit her work but was met with rejection. Still, she must have known its worth: each of her rejection letters was carefully archived along newspaper cuttings, essays, and masses of unseen negatives.

Before I was born:)

Knew a lassie who fell in love with a ShowroomDummy. My hand to God. Used to go down West Nile Street, Glasgow at midnight just to stare at it. Gave it a name and everything. PureCamp

Dollymopp Found my way here through your Thierry Mulger photos. So glad I did! I grew up in Altrincjam & it’s so lovely to see photos of it in the 80’s. I live in New York now but have so much nostalgia for my childhood home! Thank you!

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