Marjorie Baker (13 November 1912 – 9 November 2004) was a British photographer who documented the changing life of

Henfield Henfield is a large village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham (district), Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, northwest of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester at ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, England from the mid to late twentieth century.

Career

Baker took photographs for over 60 years that recorded the way of life around her in the rural Sussex village of Henfield. She learnt professional photography as an apprentice to the photographer Margaret Ellsmoor, who was based in London but had a studio at Onslow House, Brighton Road, in Worthing and showed specimen work at 13 Chapel Road. Baker began to work from Henfield in 1932. She converted space in a coach-house to a studio in 1938, where she used

large format Large format photography refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120 film, 120- and 220-roll film), and much la ...

cameras throughout her career. She also photographed outdoors at local events and festivals. Some of her photographs were used for postcards by businesses and the local church. Some of her portraits were shown in the Institute of British Photographers exhibitions in London. The photographs that she was commissioned to take often showed a story as well as being technically interesting. They now also provide images of social history. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Baker and her four assistants photographed weddings as well as portraits for the servicemen based in the region. One of her popular photographs showed a baby with an expression reminiscent of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

. She stopped taking photographs in 1996. In the last years of her life she worked with museum curators to document the photographs.

Legacy

Around 200 of her photographic prints are in Horsham Museum and 15,000 and 60,000 negatives are in Henfield Museum.

Personal life

Baker was born 13 November 1912 in Henfield, Sussex where her parents, Albert and Ethel (née Thrift) Baker, had a butcher's shop. She was educated at Steyne boarding school in Worthing. She married Stephen Tidey (died 1999) in 1940 and they had two sons together. She died in Henfield on 9 November 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Marjorie 2004 deaths English women photographers 20th-century British women photographers 20th-century British photographers Photographers from Sussex People from Henfield 1912 births