An Evening with Nan Levy — Shirley Baker Summer Exhibition
Save the date — Thursday 25 June 2026, 6 – 8 pm. An intimate evening at Zebra One Gallery with Nan Levy, daughter of the legendary British social-documentary photographer Shirley Baker and keeper of her archive, marking what would have been Shirley's 94th birthday with the opening preview of our summer exhibition and an exclusive print run.
An evening with Nan Levy
For five decades Shirley Baker walked the streets of Salford and Manchester with a Rolleiflex round her neck — quietly building one of the great social documents of post-war Britain. She photographed kids swinging from lampposts, mothers gathered round an ice-cream van, washing strung across the rubble of the slum clearances. She shot Kodachrome at a time when serious British photographers refused to touch colour. In the 1980s she turned the same unposed, eye-level register on Camden punks, Blackpool seasides and dog shows up and down the country.
Today her archive is managed by her daughter Nan Levy, who has spent the years since Shirley's death in 2014 ensuring that the work reaches the audiences it always deserved — from the landmark 2015 show at The Photographers' Gallery, to Tate Britain's Fear and Freedom survey, to MACK's definitive monograph.
On Thursday 25 June, Nan joins us at the gallery for an intimate, in-conversation evening — sharing first-hand stories from Shirley's life behind the lens, walking through the archive, and unveiling a rare selection of limited-edition prints made specifically for the show.
Event details
Date Thursday, 25 June 2026 Time 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Location Zebra One Gallery · Perrins Court (off Hampstead High Street) · Hampstead, London NW3 1QX RSVP info@zebraonegallery.com
This is the opening preview of Zebra One's summer exhibition celebrating Shirley Baker — a fantastic opportunity to hear Nan first-hand on her mother's life behind the lens, view the full range of estate-authorised prints, and meet the gallery team.
What's on the walls
The exhibition gathers Shirley's most-loved bodies of work — the pioneering 1965 colour pictures of Hulme, the black-and-white slum-clearance documents of 1960s Salford, the Camden punks of the early '80s, the seaside pictures from Blackpool and the Côte d'Azur, and the comic-warmth dog-show portraits she made all the way through her career.
A full preview of available work is on the artist hub at Shirley Baker · Zebra One Gallery — and on Instagram via @zebraonegallery.
Booking
Spaces are limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. To reserve a place, please email info@zebraonegallery.com with your name and the number of attendees. We'll confirm by return.
We hope you'll join us.
