Photo|Frome – Joanne Coates

Joanne Coates, a working-class visual artist based in the North East of England, uses photography to explore rurality, hidden histories, and income-based inequalities. Educated in working-class communities before attending London College of Communications (BA Hons Photography), Joanne values community engagement as central to her practice.

As a farm labourer focused on nature-friendly methods, her work reflects a strong connection to place and memory. Her art spans photography, installations, and audio, tackling issues of power, identity, wealth, and poverty. Joanne was selected as the 2024 Election Artist by the UK Parliament’s Speaker’s Committee and received the Baltic Vasseur Arts Award in 2023 for work on housing, climate, and rural life. She was also recently longlisted for the 2024 Deutsche Borse Photography Prize and the 2023 Prix Pictet.

Joanne has spent years interrogating the British class system and scraping aside myths that surround idyllic versions of rural life. In the series The Lie of the Land, she unravels the social histories of the countryside in the North East of England by collaborating with rural working class women in agriculture.