Shirley Baker: Women, Children and Loitering Men

Thought to be the only woman practicing street photography in Britain during the post-war era, Shirley Baker’s humanist documentary work received little attention throughout her sixty-five years career. Shirley Baker: Women, Children and Loitering Men includes previously unseen colour photographs by Baker alongside black and white images and ephemera such as magazine spreads, contact sheets and various sketches. It specifically focuses on her depictions of the urban clearance programmes of inner city Manchester and Salford. This intense period of study, spanning from 1961 - 1981, documents what Baker saw as the needless destruction of working class communities.