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 a British photographer whose social documentary work focused on the realities of women’s lives from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Her photographs were often accompanied by interviews with the subjects and deal with the different everyday working lives of women in Scotland, parts of the Soviet Union (Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine), China, Zimbabwe, the Caribbean, Israel, and Palestine. Until her untimely death in 1994 Raffles, who described herself as an activist with a camera, took over 40,000 photographs that combine her observations of social and gender inequalities with a call for global solidarity. By providing an insight into the work of Franki Raffles this exhibition at the Museum of Work aims to draw attention to the issues raised by this feminist photographer, which remain relevant today despite the changes and developments of recent decades.
