London is
currently displaying a healthy trend towards shining a spotlight on pioneering
female photographers, helping balance the traditional male bias of the industry.
Exhibitions so far this year have focused
on the brilliant but introverted Vivian Maier and the indomitable spirit of
Christina Broom as the first UK female press photographer. Now it is the turn
of Shirley Baker to be given her own retrospective.
Baker was a pioneering street
photographer who, at first glance, seems to be telling the story of the
grinding poverty in the slums of Manchester and Salford and the slow decline of
late twentieth century Britain. A more
in-depth look, however, reveals a rich social network of neighbourhoods within
tightly-knit communities on the brink of destruction.
Born and bred in Lancashire, Baker
focused her work on her home county which she was to spend much of her life
capturing on film. She originally trained for a career as an industrial
photographer working at a fabric manufacturer, but soon realised there were
more interesting subjects to document around her local area. In 1960 she became a lecturer at Salford
College of Art and it was during this time that she began to take candid and
spontaneous photos of impoverished areas and the local working-class community.
It was a time of great change and Baker
managed to capture and document the process of clearing the slums which existed
in Manchester and Salford to make way for modern tower blocks and a different
way of life. In Baker's photos the inhabitants, particularly the children, seem
indifferent to the changing scenes around them. Life appears to have been
happily lived in the streets - children playing around lampposts, a street for
a cricket pitch, doorstops an ideal spot for catching up with other mothers and
a quiet path providing a place to sit and play with friends. It can be difficult to look at some of the
photos and reconcile that such poverty existed in a first world country, as it
still does in other areas today.
Visitors to the exhibition can enjoy an
immersive experience as there is also a sound track playing which features recordings
of the street sounds of the time, as well as Baker giving her own account of
what life was like. She felt keenly as a
photographer that it was her responsibility to document and record the effect
of the change which this mass development had on both the local communities and
at an individual level. The
destruction of areas as they were bull-dozed also meant the loss of the sense
of community, and through her work she was able to provide a lasting and honest
account of the period and the glimpse of a way of life which no longer exists.
Photographer's Gallery
16-18 Ramillies St
London
W1F 7LW
Opening hours: Mon-Sat
10am-6pm; Thu 10am-8pm; Sun 11.30am-6pm
Living History
Recording
events, places and lifestyles so that the images can become part of our
cultural history is a major role for photography, as is the display of the
collections to allow future generations to remember and appreciate the roots of
their own societies. Many galleries
include such photography exhibitions as part of their regular schedule,
including the Tate galleries supported as they are by the Tate Foundation. The Foundation supports and guides the work
of the Tate Galleries and the Trustees and Honorary members include Mandy
Moross, Sasan Ghandehari, Elisabeth Murdoch, Marilyn Ofer and Simon Palley.
