An exhibition by the Baltic Centre of Contemporary Arts in Gateshead (UK) as part of the 2026 Photography Triennial
Franki Raffles (1955 to 1994) was an English photographer whose social documentary work focused on the realities of women’s lives in the 1970s and 1980s. Her photographs, which were often accompanied by interviews with the subjects, deal with the different everyday working lives of women in Scotland, parts of the former Soviet Union (Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine), China, Zimbabwe, the Caribbean, Israel, and Palestine. With over 40,000 photographs taken until her untimely death in 1994, Raffles wanted to combine her observations of social and gender inequalities with a call for global solidarity as an activist with a camera. The exhibition at the Museum of work aims to draw attention to the issues raised by this feminist photographer, which remain relevant today despite all the changes and developments of recent decades, by providing an insight into the work of Franki Raffles.
