Joanne Coates: Liznojan – a personal journey, the highs and lows of a working class photographer

‘To learn’ links back etymologically to proto-Germanic ‘liznojan’, meaning ‘to follow or to find a track’.

Joanne Coates is an award-winning working-class photographer. She was born and is based in North Yorkshire, and works across the North of England, exploring rurality, social histories of class and inequalities relating to low income through photography, installations, and audio. She was first educated in working-class communities but went on to study at the London College of Communication. Her work involves participation and working with communities and she is interested in questioning stories around power, identity, wealth, and poverty.

Joanne’s work has been exhibited in the UK and internationally including at the Royal Albert Hall, Reveal-T Photography Festival, Cork Photo Festival and Somerset House. In 2012, she was awarded a Metro Imaging Portfolio Prize, a Magnum Portfolio Review and The Ideastap Innovators Award. In 2016, she gained a Magenta Flash Forward award for emerging talent in the UK and in 2017, she was one of the artists working in Hull for the UK City of Culture.

Over the past five years Joanna has achieved worldwide recognition and, in 2020, she was artist in residence at The Maltings, Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy (CRE) and the Institute for Creative Arts Practice, where she developed ‘Daughters of the Soil’, exploring the role of women in agriculture in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. In 2021, she was a recipient of Shutterstock Females in Focus Award and in 2024 was awarded the Baltic Vasseur Arts Award and had a solo show at The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

Here is a short documentary video produced by Photoworks about Joanne and her work. You can find out more on her website. and Instagram.

Visitors are welcome (£5) and should contact Julia for more information or to book a place.