Culture | 22 October 2026
The story in brief
A new book brings together photographs taken more than 70 years ago.
The photographs show ordinary people at work, travelling and spending time together.
Who is involved?
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John Baer: An American photographer who took pictures of everyday life.
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Andrew Baer: John's son, who discovered the photographs after his father's death.
What happened?
A new book shares John Baer's photographs from 1945 to 1954.
Many of the photographs had not been widely seen before.
They show people in New York City and parts of Europe.
What do the photographs show?
The collection includes pictures of:
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Women sitting and talking in a park.
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Workers repairing city streets.
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Soldiers travelling home after the Second World War.
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People riding bicycles through traffic.
Many photographs show people going about their ordinary day, rather than posing for a camera.
What is the background?
John Baer began taking photographs while serving in the Second World War.
He continued photographing everyday life in Europe and New York.
He stopped taking photographs in 1954.
His photographs remained largely unseen for many years.
Why does it matter?
The photographs show what everyday life looked like many years ago.
They help us see how people dressed, travelled, worked and spent time together.
Where can I see the photographs?
The collection appears in a new book called John Baer: The Extraordinary Ordinary / A Memoir in Photographs, 1945–1954.
You can also see a selection of the original photographs in The Guardian.
Source: The Guardian, 20 October 2026