Sixties northern colour

Shirley Baker was a pioneering photographer who chronicled the streets round Manchester and Salford from the mid-Sixties on. She really only became widely celebrated after her death in 2014, in particular with an exhibition at the Photographers' Gallery in 2015, which I covered at the time - and here.

Those photos were all black and white, but she did take some mid-Sixties Kodachromes too - in Salford and Blackpool.

From her website:

What is evident in the colour work is that Shirley began to see her surroundings differently. All the traits of the black and white photographs are there: close observations of bodily gestures, definition of personal and relational space, everyday absurdities, and acute recognition of urban form in street perspectives, roof tops and alleyways. Added to this is a new found awareness of colour as it livens up the otherwise darkened dusty street scenes. Shirley is drawn to the bright cleanliness of a group of children playing in colourful clothes. The sunshine makes the dusty air sparkle softly. 

In British post-war photography, this series of photographs represents an early use of colour, prior to its full exploration in the new colour supplement magazines and advertising in the 1970s.

[Photos © Estate of Shirley Baker]

Comments

[Recruiting Animal]

These pictures remind me of those you post from Shorpys of the 1930s. When I think of the 60s in Britain I think of The Beatles not this kind of squalor.

[jones]

"not this kind of squalor"

You mean white privilege surely?