Janet Baker - Photographer

I love taking pictures.

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I’ve been capturing images since I was first given a camera when I was eighteen. It was as if all the drawing and painting that I was never able to do was suddenly available to me. And what I wanted to get down on paper I now could.

Took me quite a while to realise that this was something I could 'do'.

When I look at things, or people, or a scene, it has something to say. Not that I hear things talking to me, I'm not admitting to that! 

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But... There is more than just a picture in a picture. 

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Photography is emotional.

It’s specific, raw, fun, open, complicated, and, today, available to everyone. I started with my favourite HP5 Black and white film, and I’m still more comfortable with black and white. It has a different truth.

I spent years working in photographic labs and studios. The possibilities of an image are endless. But there is a unique joy to be had when your image is your own, and the constraints of a job don’t tie you up.

Moments captured that have their own story, their own emotion.

It’s proper freedom of expression, in an environment so supportive and sharing that It has made me take a leap of faith, to let my work been looked at, examined, judged.

 

But sharing them can be a scary process. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

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Janet