Unseen Vin­tage Street Photographs 

Online Exhi­bi­tion: 24th Sep­tem­ber – 1st Novem­ber 2024. 

The Cen­tre for British Pho­tog­ra­phy is hold­ing a new online exhi­bi­tion of street pho­tog­ra­ph­er Shirley Bak­er’s images. Tak­ing its name from a recur­ring motif in Lemn Sissay’s poem Flags, Pave­ment Cracks unveils pre­vi­ous­ly unseen images cap­tured by Shirley, tak­en in and around Manchester.

The Cen­tre’s direc­tor, James Hyman col­lab­o­rat­ed with Nan Levy, Shirley Bak­er’s daugh­ter, to bring this online show to fruition. The new­ly revealed pho­tographs pro­vide new insights into her street scenes, images pri­mar­i­ly depict­ing chil­dren play­ing togeth­er in the streets dur­ing the 1960s, reveal­ing the diver­si­ty of the pop­u­la­tion at the time.

The major­i­ty of the pho­tographs are being exhib­it­ed here for the first time. All of them come direct­ly from the pho­tog­ra­pher’s estate and are avail­able for sale. Prices range from £2,000 to £2,800. An illus­trat­ed cat­a­logue is avail­able in PDF form.

The exhi­bi­tion is avail­able to view at the Cen­tre for British Photography