Shirley Baker - Punks 1980s, Cafe Royal Books

During the 1980s, Shirley’s doctor husband took up a medical directors post in London. Baker embraced this opportunity and spent time in Camden and London’s west end where she photographed the vibrant second phase of Punk, in both striking colour and black and white. These photographs present London’s street culture during a period of vibrancy between 1986 and 1991.

Alongside these London photographs is an additional collection of punks hanging around Stockport high street in Cheshire, around the same early 1980s period. These, similar to the first series, are in full colour, as well as black and white.

Café Royal Books is a small independent publisher of photography photobooks or zines, and sometimes drawing, solely run by Craig Atkinson and based in Southport, England.