Joanne Coates

Joanne Coates is a working-class photographer born and based in North Yorkshire. Working across the North of England, Coates explores rurality, social histories of class, and inequalities relating to low income through photography, installations and audio. Coates was educated first in working class communities, then at The Sir John Cass School of Fine art (Fda Fine Art) and The London College of Communication (BA Hons Photography). Her practice revolves around process, participation, and working with communities. She is interested in questioning stories around power, identity, wealth and poverty. In 2020 Coates was commissioned as artist in residence at The Maltings and Newcastle University where she developed Daughters of the Soil, exhibited at The Maltings in 2022. In 2017, she was one of the artists working in Hull for the UK City of Culture. In 2016, she was awarded the Magenta Flash Forward Top 30 emerging talent in the UK, and in 2012, during her Foundation year, she was awarded a Metro Imaging Portfolio Prize, a Magnum Portfolio Review and The Ideastap innovators award.