Punks 1980s - Shirley Baker

A compact collection of Shirley Baker’s photographs documenting punk and youth culture in 1980s Britain. Baker’s candid, unposed images capture young people hanging around the streets, dressed in the clothes and hairstyles of the era, with her characteristic eye for humour, personality and the everyday details of working-class life. Rather than presenting punk as polished mythology, these photographs show it as something lived, social and rooted in ordinary streets.

Published by Café Royal Books, an independent family-run publisher established in 2005 and known for its affordable, tactile publications of documentary photography. Their catalogue focuses on everyday life, overlooked communities, streets, music, youth culture, fashion and subcultures, often drawing from archival material at least 15 years old. The books present photographs without commentary or interpretation, allowing the images to stand as direct records of particular places, moments and movements. Punks 1980s fits neatly into this wider project of preserving overlooked aspects of British social and cultural history.

Second edition.
24 pages, staple bound, 14 × 20 cm.
Printed in England.