Baker Artist Portfolios

I always wanted to be an artist . A way into storytelling and a way out of the social constraints I was raised on in the forties and fifties.

My images  are metaphors for the inability of people,  despite all their brilliance, to grapple  with the big picture ; our planet, our politics, our people.  The works exist along a continuum of social commentary and abstraction.

At age thirteen, I  began as a student of Quita Brodhead, a colorist and early abstract expressionist., herself a student of Arthur Carles. She was my teacher and my lifetime friend and mentor. LIFE magazine was also part of my life; my heroes were Henri Cartier Bresson and the photographers at Magnum, and my photography was deeply influenced by their work.

I attended Moore Institute of Art in Philadelphia, for two years and continued my education at MICA’s night school. During the day I took care of my two young children and painted abstract  expressionist works on the sly.

I was head of the Art Department at St Paul’s School for Boys for 10 years,  before going into the world of freelance photography. My education in photography came through a community of generous and creative people.

When I began my photography practice I called the Baltimore Museum of Art to request a critique. After reviewing my work they offered me  a solo exhibition. That opportunity launched me on my path.

My work evolved in two major directions. As an independent photographer, specializing in black and white and hand colored work, for corporate, educational, institutional and documentary work, I handled everything in house, from film to final print.

In 1980, I was one of twelve photographers hired by The Equitable Trust Bank of Maryland for a yearlong photographic survey of the state. My focus in St Mary’s County included   g oystermen, the Amish, tobacco farmers, and politicians, and the land and water. Another subject was Fells Point in Baltimore, a waterfront neighborhood going through gentrification.

The culmination of my documentary work was “Patapsco; Life Along Maryland’s Historic River Valley” a book highlighting the region once central to the textile industry during the industrial Revolution. Published in 2006 By the textile industrial revolution in Maryland. Published in 2006  by The Center for American Places, Columbia College Chicago, in association with The Maryland Historical Trust the book features essays and biographies by Alison Kahn, and my portraits of the people and places along the Patapsco River, 

“Dancing With Strangers” a book of Gary Blankenberg’s poetry and my street photographs was published  in 2006.

As a fine artist working on noncommissioned projects, I was free to expand the parameters of my use of photography, while tending to its discipline. I began to manipulate my images into collages, mounting the work on aluminum panels that allowed me to paint onto and scrape into the image.

My work gained recognition when I was awarded a commission to do a mural for The Johns Hopkins Metro station.  ”Lost In The Cosmos”, a twelve by two hundred foot mural in porcelain enamel and steel of people dancing through the galaxies, cows jumping over the moon, commuters and, Superman traveling together on the metro and in the stars is a twelve by two hundred foot mural in porcelain enamel on steel.

I’ve shown mostly in the mid-Atlantic, region, including two solo shows in  at the Atlantic Gallery, in NYC

After a long and rich career as a photographer I am now retired from assignment work, though always open to new possibilities.

These days I’m exploring different ways of telling a story by using drawing and other mark making methods in addition to  photography and painting, to create my images.. I am grateful at this time in my life, after a long and varied career, to allow a simple focus on the adventure of image making, and letting the work dictate the process.