This photography was very in keeping with the theme of documentary as it was a form of documentation. It was developed by the photographer Shirley Baker of the 'urban clearance programs' of inner city Manchester and Salford during the years 1961 and 1981. It truly reveals what she saw this 'cleansing' action as; needless and destructive. Over her sixty five year photographic career, Baker, as one of the first female street photographers, has received surprisingly little recognition. Her images are particularly interesting as she herself plays no part in what naturally happened to be in her field of vision, believing it to be important to capture the world exactly as it was. Yet her images are still multi layered and insightful and her beautiful framing technique highlights the surrealism and peculiarity of the everyday as well as alluding to satirical puns of what she captured.
By saving moments from her and many people's past she gives them resonance and prominence in the culture of the city in which they were taken. Objects become symbolic of what they are as opposed to simply indexical. The peeling paint and bulldozed homes come to represent lives once lived, her focus of graffiti alludes to the humanity and the activity of the people who thrived in the city. Despite its lower class connotations, she demonstrates, with great prowess, the value of the livelihood that was once there now that it is to be discarded and forgotten and, elegantly, prevents its total destruction by preserving it through the photographic medium.
By saving moments from her and many people's past she gives them resonance and prominence in the culture of the city in which they were taken. Objects become symbolic of what they are as opposed to simply indexical. The peeling paint and bulldozed homes come to represent lives once lived, her focus of graffiti alludes to the humanity and the activity of the people who thrived in the city. Despite its lower class connotations, she demonstrates, with great prowess, the value of the livelihood that was once there now that it is to be discarded and forgotten and, elegantly, prevents its total destruction by preserving it through the photographic medium.
This image is perhaps the most symbolic of the destruction of livelihood. The grainy and dark quality of the film gives way to the connotations of deprivation and poverty,particularly with the grubbily clad child in the foreground. The vast depth of field highlights the extent of the destruction so one can really see the juxtaposition in the familiarity of the shapes of the buildings and the wasteland up front. One is really given a sense of the domestic apocalypse, particularly in keeping with the many films of the 70s and 80s as the world began to fear nuclear attack.
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Here the elegant framing and inclusion of the whole streetlamp gives a sense of community and familial unity of the location. The girls are in a way, dancing with their home town in a way that really calls into question way it was to be destroyed. The faded colours of the image also add to this sense of nostalgic loss as over time, a fond memory will become sad as it can no longer be felt or accessed. As a photograph, this image gives us a window into a time lost and can thus be used as a way to connect with a time we long to touch again; such is the great gift of documentary style photography.
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The proud look on the boys face here really sums up the life lost when a n area is destroyed. His humanity and humble cheek as he turns to look at the photographer, not only reminds you of her presence in this real world, but also indicates this boy's connection to his surroundings. The inclusion of children in much of her images indicates the extent to which this area was extremely family oriented, marking the unjust destruction of a world deemed imperfect at the end of the war and rebuilt to battle with the upsurge of metropolitan popularity that occurred in England at the beginning of the 1960s.
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