James Hyman Gallery is pleased to present an online exhibition of largely unseen photographs by Shirley Baker selected from the photographer's estate. The exhibition includes her rare colour work as well as iconic black and white images.
The exhibition focuses on Shirley Baker's celebrated street scenes photographed around Manchester and Salford and explores her depiction of older adults.
Nan Levy, Shirley Baker's daughter, who has curated the show with James Hyman, explains:
"Having been in lockdown for the past weeks and only just being allowed out, it made me think of our elderly folk who are still unable to see their loved ones. They cannot even visit their sons and daughters or take pleasure from playing their grandchildren for fear of catching the virus. I have put a collection of Shirley's photographs of the elderly taken from the 60s to the 80s showing them taking pleasure from the simple things in daily life that sadly are not possible at the moment."
Shirley Baker, writing of her motivations captures a world of street life that seems like a distant memory:
"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."