Photographer Shirley Baker, who was born in 1932 and died in 2014, saw the poverty that the inner-city neighborhoods of Manchester and Salford were struck with in 1961 and decided she couldn’t sit idly by. It was then and there that she began her 20 year journey photographing these neighborhoods. From 1961 to 1981 she walked around the most destitute neighborhoods in these cities with her camera in hand, to record and empathize with everything and everyone that was there.

 

The photo above is one of her’s from this particular collection that intrigued and animated me. Although the photo holds no title, the studium is a little blond girl, probably around the age of three or four, wheeling a play carriage on the sidewalk by a brick wall. It’s a seemingly very ordinary and mundane photo. The punctum, for me at least, is the fact that this little innocent girl is wearing men’s shoes. Immediately upon seeing this photograph I was taken back to the days when I was younger and would walk around my house in my mom’s heels or my dad’s sneakers. There is probably even a picture of me wheeling a stroller whilst styling one of my parents’ shoes. Then, however, I remembered the time and place of Baker’s photo and I began to question: whose shoes are these?  Are they her father’s? Did she just find them on the street? Is she wearing them out of necessity or just to play? After my mind flooded with these questions I began to notice that certain parts of the photo didn’t exactly coincide with the circumstances of the picture. I became aware of just how well dressed this toddler is, and that intrigued me as well. I wouldn’t imagine a child living in a poverty filled neighborhood to wear clothes as well kept and perfect fitting as she was. Therein lies my second punctum, the way this enchanting child is dressed. This photo “gives me tiny jubilations,” in the words of Barthes, because of the similarity yet wide differences to my own childhood experiences as well as the ambiguity of the child’s situation because of the way she’s dressed. I believe this piece will captivate me forever, or at least until I get some answers on how this charming little girl seems to be living an ordinary life in the slums of England. Even then, her innocent look and the familiarity of her oversized shoes will keep me mesmerized.