Is Shirley Baker responsible?

I’ve been contemplating several images in the Archives and Special Collections.

Among those that consistently intrigue me are six photographs that raise questions about who’s responsible for them.

A “picture speaks a thousand words” is an understatement, here’s why..

These images appear to be taken within the same point in time. Maybe not on the same day, but I’d go as far to say within the same week, and at most, the same month. I’d even put it out there that they were developed using the same 35mm Kodak film (or similar). The similarities with framing, aesthetic and overall composition are too coincidental. As a collection, they form a larger narrative and together they could even create their own micro-exhibition. Each is taken in Pendleton, Salford, specifically around the former Ellor Street and Unwin Street during the early 1960s. They were snapped during a pivotal point of urban renewal. Brick, rubble and demolition dust juxtaposed against a backdrop of modular tower-block modernity. The few visible residents are going about their daily business whilst making sense of what is unfolding around them. Yet, people aren’t central to these photographs (unlike Baker’s more well-known work), but their presence is still poignant. Symbolism within the overall sparseness. These images are about the entirety of the physical environment caught during a liminal point in time.

Not one is attributed to a single photographer and there is no name or clue as to who took them. However, there’s no doubt that these are Shirley Baker (1932-2014), along with three more I’ve uploaded to Flickr.

The Modernbackdrop displayed a number of Baker’s images at a closing exhibition. One of those is central to my claim which featured on their website. there’s too much resemblance. Baker’s official website references her time at the Royal Technical College. Her obituary (2014) stated: “from the 1960s, Baker taught photography at Salford College of Art and would always carry her camera modestly stowed in her handbag. In free periods, she began a body of work, spanning 15 years of the social housing in the area that was being demolished as people lived in semi-derelict slums”. I attended a recent screen for the new documentary film: Shirley Baker ‘Life Through A Lens’. Unfortunately, her employment wasn’t mentioned (slightly disappointing). However, I’m certain these are Baker’s artistic by-products. Captured in between her main photographs that became more well known and celebrated. These were left on the side, or in the editing suite.