"I love the immediacy of unposed, spontaneous photographs and the ability of the camera to capture the serious, the funny, the sublime and the ridiculous. Despite the many wonderful pictures of the great and famous. I feel that less formal, quotidian images can often convey more of the life and spirit of the time." Shirley Baker
Taking its name from a recurring motif in Lemn Sissay’s poem Flag, this exhibition presents unseen street photographs by Shirley Baker made in and around Manchester. In each case, the artist links the fabric of the city to memory and emotion and embeds the subject in the life of the street. Sissay’s words are literally set into the streets of northern Manchester, whilst Baker’s viewpoints frequently draw attention to the pavements and streets as places of play and drama.
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Focused on the classic period of Baker’s work, her photographs made in Manchester and Salford in the 1960s, the majority of these vintage photographs are presented for the very first time. All of them come direct from the photographer’s estate and are available for sale.
Prices range from £ 2,000.00 to £ 2,800.00.
About Shirley Baker
Shirley Baker was one of the only women practising street photography in Britain during the post-war era: a compassionate humanist photographer and teller of stories that make visible the spectrum of man's resilience. Baker's photographs capture daily life on the streets of inner-city areas of Manchester, including Hulme and Salford. The most famous works show children and women outside their homes and in the surrounding streets or against a backdrop of dilapidated buildings and building sites. Through her photographs one can trace the ways in which British culture became more diverse over this period.