Beginning in the early 1970s, Shirley spent her summers in Southern France. Her daughter Nan Levy, says her mother during this period was attracted to observing the rarities displayed in people: people in close contact, touching; absorbed in thought; sleeping in public; in states of undress (yes, NAKED, wow), or finding joy in simplicity.

Several of these images were published in travel magazines at the time, but many were unseen until May 2016, when they were shown at “Shirley Baker On the Beach”, at Photofusion.