Published by MACK in 2019, Shirley Baker gathers the work of the Salford-born photographer whose documentary practice extended from the 1950s to 2000. Baker’s first photograph was developed in the darkness of a coal shed in her hometown, an origin that gives the book’s wide-ranging archive a grounded sense of place. The volume is edited by Lou Stoppard, whose role is central to shaping this presentation of Baker’s photography rather than contributing the images themselves.

At its core is Baker’s distinctive account of post-war life. The book brings together her celebrated street photographs of Manchester, Salford and Blackpool with previously unseen images made elsewhere in the United Kingdom and in the South of France, Italy and Japan. Its scope is therefore broader than a regional portrait, but its attention remains close to ordinary experience: changing streetscapes, clothing, gestures and social rituals become the material of an expansive yet alert survey.

Humour gives the collection much of its particular character. A shopper angles his head in echo of a mannequin; an older woman faces the camera with cigarette-marked lips and comic stoicism; children imitate the postures of adults. These encounters reveal Baker’s sensitivity to the small dislocations through which public life becomes expressive. Warmth and wit coexist with a keen observation of British identity, while shifts in photographic style and tone keep the sequence open to the variety of her career.

For serious collectors, the book deserves attention as a considered account of a major documentary archive and as an unusually female perspective on post-war social life. Its 23 × 24 cm debossed hardcover format, issued by MACK, gives this editorial selection a durable book form without displacing the photographs’ everyday immediacy.