Shirley Baker

Shirley Baker (9 July 1932 – 21 September 2014) was a British photographer, best known for her street photography and street portraits in working class areas of Greater Manchester. She worked as a freelance writer and photographer on various magazines, books and newspapers, and as a lecturer on photography. Most of her photography was made for her personal interest but she undertook occasional commissions. in north Salford, Lancashire, Baker was one of identical twins. They moved to Manchester when she was two, Baker went on to study photography at Manchester College of Technology, and took other courses at Regent Street Polytechnic in London and the London College of Printing. She has said she was influenced by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand.

Baker had two books of her photographs published during her lifetime. Street Photographs: Manchester and Salford (1989) contains her photographs of people in Salford and Manchester in the 1960s and early 1970s. In the late 1990s she was commissioned by The Lowry to revisit the same places. The Lowry held an exhibition of her work and published a book, Streets and Spaces: Urban Photography – Salford and Manchester – 1960s–2000 (2000), with her older photographs juxtaposed against her new photographs, showing people in different periods, in a radically altered urban landscape, yet involved in similar activities. In 1987 she undertook a project on the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital supported by Viewpoint Gallery, Salford. In July and August 1987 she completed a commission to photograph at Manchester Airport for the Documentary Photography Archive (DPA). Baker's work at the airport was featured in a Granada Television programme on the work of the DPA and broadcast as part of its "Celebration" series on 23 October 1987.

Legacy Shirley Baker: Life Through a Lens, a feature-length documentary, had its premiere on 18 May 2023, at the Centre for British Photography in London. It was then shown at Manchester Art Gallery on 23 May 2023. The film, written by John West and directed and edited by Jason Figgis, is narrated by the actor Samantha Beckinsale.

Publications Street Photographs: Manchester and Salford. Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe, 1989. . With essays by Stephen Constantine, "Street Scenes: Late Afternoon", and by Baker, "Street Photographs". Streets and Spaces: Urban Photography – Salford and Manchester – 1960s–2000. Salford: The Lowry, 2000. . Edited by Michael Leitch and with an essay by Baker. Published to accompany an exhibition at The Lowry. Women and Children; and Loitering Men. London: The Photographers' Gallery, 2015. . Published to accompany the exhibition Women, Children and Loitering Men at The Photographers' Gallery, London, 17 July – 20 September 2015. Edited by Anna Douglas. With a preface by Brett Rogers, a foreword by Grislelda Pollock, an essay by Anna Douglas and a short story by Jackie Kay. Shirley Baker. London: Mack, 2019. Edited by Lou Stoppard. .

Zines Punks 1980s. Southport: Café Royal, 2018; 2020. British Seaside 1960–1970. Southport: Café Royal, 2018; 2020. Manchester and Salford Children in the 1960s. Southport: Café Royal, 2018. Manchester and Salford on Holiday in the 1960s. Southport: Café Royal, 2018.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 1986: My Face or Yours, touring exhibition. 2006/2007: The Photographers' Gallery, London, February 2006 – December 2007.

Exhibitions with others 1963: Nine Photographers, Manchester Building and Design Centre, Manchester, November–December 1963. 1986: Here Yesterday, and Gone Today exhibited at Salford Art Gallery as part of the Images of Salford exhibition. 2012: A Lowry Summer, The Lowry, Salford, Greater Manchester, July–October 2012. Exhibition of work by L. S. Lowry accompanied by work from other artists who depicted leisure time, Baker and Humphrey Spender. 2012: Observers: British Photography and the British Scene, Serviço Social da Indústria (SESI), São Paulo.