NEWS RELEASES
Miss Baker's Extraordinary Vision Remembered
16th November 2004
In Brighton last Friday the funeral of one of this area's unsung artists took place. Whilst local people who commissioned her photographs were aware of her skill and artistry with the camera, very few outside that circle would have known of Marjorie Baker. To remember and commemorate her life, Horsham Museum is mounting a retrospective exhibition displaying a number of her stunning images. This is not the first time the Museum has featured Marjorie’s work, as we were indeed fortunate to have been able some three years ago to mount an exhibition called 'Roadmender Country', which gained her national recognition through the pages of Country Life Magazine. It was this exhibition that went on display in her village of Henfield and brought her work to the attention of a wider audience.
Whilst many a visitor marvelled at the photographs, it was the trained eye of the artist that revealed the true nature of her work. This is what clearly excited Adam Nicholson who explored how Marjorie skilfully staged the apparently casual photographs. He wrote,
'She is not careless, there are no snaps; nor are they sentimental, in the way of so much urban-based rural photography, which takes a trip out to the countryside, sees what it wants to see and comes back with its trophies….But the extraordinary vision of Miss Baker, working with such expertise and human sympathy over so many decades can also deepen . . . In a rigorously understated way, it is the work of a master photographer, until now unsung.'
The exhibition at Horsham Museum 'The Extraordinary Vision of Marjorie Baker Remembered' runs from 17th November to 24th December. It is the Museum's tribute to a remarkable photographer and recorder of Henfield life and the surrounding area, Roadmender Country, so loved by Marjorie Baker.
For further information please contact:
Jeremy Knight, Curator
Horsham Museum, 9 Causeway
Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959
Fax: (01403) 217581
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
Opening times:
Mon to Sat (ex. bank hols) 10.00am -5.00pm
Admission free