Shannon Baker

Shannon Baker Biography

Shannon Baker is a local artist using primarily photography as her medium. After studying Art History at Western University, she bought a 1970’s fully manual film camera and learned how to process black and white film and make silver gelatin prints. Her current photography is taken on digital cameras and printed as C-prints which is an archival quality chemical print. Other artistic printing options for her work include printing on metal and acrylic.

Shannon has exhibited her work in juried shows such as Glenhyrst Gallery of Brant - Brantford, McIntosh Gallery – London, Haldimand County Museum – Cayuga. She was a member of Latow Photographer’s Guild for several years and won Honourable Mentions in their juried shows a couple times. Some of her juried gallery shows also participated in Toronto’s CONTACT Photography festival.

In 2009 she participated in the Spring Art Show and Sale at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and was included in their Art Rental and Sales program for several years. Her solo show of works featuring black and white silver gelatin prints of urban photography in Hamilton placed her among several contemporary artists featuring Hamilton as a subject. This collection of Hamilton scenes was commissioned by a local business and remains in private collections.

In 2012, Shannon was selected to participate in Suzy Lake’s mentorship program held at the Art Gallery of Burlington. In the year long session, Suzy guided a few artists towards the completion of personal art projects which were presented in a group exhibition. Shannon’s project was titled, Bond’s Final Report and it comprised a re-imagining of James Bond’s Final Report in Dr. No and recontextualized vacation photographs from Jamaica to illustrate imaginary extensions of the story.

After a ten year hiatus from her art practice for career purposes, Shannon recently created her project of flower art called Perspectives and exhibited select images at Studio k2 and Headwaters Arts. It comprises unusual compositions of still life flowers using mirrors which make them appear doubled or floating. This was during the pandemic lockdowns when leaving the house was highly risky and sometimes banned. Growing her own flowers provided something beautiful to focus on in an unprecedentedly unusual time. She hopes her compositions challenge viewers to question their own perspectives and understanding of their experiences. When we expect a flower picture to be composed in an upright way and it’s not, we look harder to see how it was composed; we think harder and ask why would the artist do that; we wonder, what does that mean? It is Shannon’s hope that her flower art collection, Perspectives, inspires people to question the world around them.

Shannon is also a law clerk and writer [www.evokate.ca].