Shirley Baker captured a lost way of life. She never got the credit she was due

The life and work of one of Greater Manchester's most loved photographers has been immortalised by a new documentary on her life and work.

Shirley Baker, born in Kersal, Salford, in 1932, is now celebrated as one of the most important social documentary photographers of her generation.

Shirley, who died in 2014 aged 82, is best known for her images of the streets and communities of Manchester and Salford from the 1960s to the 1980s.

During her lifetime she amassed a large and varied body of work, but it wasn't until later in her career that her photographs began to get the recognition they deserved.

Her daughter, Nan Levy, told the M.E.N: "She tried all sorts of jobs, she worked in industry, she tried teaching, she studied medical photography and worked in hospitals.

"I think what she really wanted to be was a press photographer and she did lots of work for the [Manchester] Guardian as a freelancer. But she could never be an official press photographer because you needed to be a member of a union to get a press card, and you couldn't join a union as a woman in those days."

At the age of eight, Shirley and her identical twin sister were given a 'Brownie box' camera by an uncle. Shirley never put hers down.

After leaving school, she studied photography at Manchester College of Technology before going on to further formal studies in photography.

"I think that must have been quite unusual, because it was very much a man's world and very few women studied photography," said Nan.

"A lot of people have commented how lenient her parents must have been to allow her to do something like that. She wrote two books in her lifetime, and in one of her books she thanks her mum for allowing her to follow her dream."

Nan said that