"WOMEN AND CHILDREN......AND LOITERING MEN..."

Visited Manchester this week, and saw photographer Shirley Baker's stunning Exhibition ( "Women and Children...And Loitering Men" .....photos of M/Chester in the 50's, 60's and 70's.....Baker ( 1932-2014) is said to have been the only woman street photographer during postwar years....

 Some pictures were extremely moving....some comic...all echoing a time so distant now....faces and places....moods and views...people and houses...and ways of living....reminding me of Boxing Days in my childhood....when I was lucky to be driving with my family.... from Chester to the pantomime in Liverpool...past bombsites...condemned houses...seeing whole communities living their life on the streets...Images that have paddled in my mind... and swum in my thoughts many times since.. 

 The This free Exhibition is at M/Chester Art Gallery until Monday August 28th.