Joanne Coates image-making is often a dance with self-doubt, both poetic and practical. It is this balance between states that the image-maker uses to create a sense of unease and ambiguity. Coates uses the medium of photography to translate visual stories that lie somewhere between myth, reality and the everyday. She seeks an intimacy with the viewer, to feel an attraction with place, and to recognise the power of the unconscious self. If one were to seek it out, one would not find it. The work often asks questions about how we relate to the world, whilst gifting a private vision, it is this multiplicity to the work that allows one to delve a little deeper into the thoughts behind it. As Coates states, “Can a series after all not be about the multiplicity of the everyday? For me a photograph encapsulates an infinite amount of feelings and moments… Personal loss. Exploration. Spiritual release. The questioning of a linear history.” The ambiguity of Coates work allows the viewer to immerse them within; they are invited to embrace the image, and in doing so to seize the senses.
Contact : joannecoates@icloud.com
Higher Education
Fda Fine Art, sir John Cass faculty of Art, London
Bachelor of Art, Photography, London College of Communication
Group Exhibitions
Oxo Tower, Bargehouse | London Analogue Festival | September 2014
The Old Truman Brewery | Analogue Documentation | September 2014
Doomed Gallery Dalston | Sestina | June 2014
Sony World Photo | MetroprintSeflie | Somerset House | London | May 2014
Nursey gallery | London College of Communication | March 2014
Jacksons | Stoke Newington | London | October - November 2013
BFI Southbank From Wembley to Soweto and Back November 2013
Lens Think | Just Add Red Gallery | London | May - June 2013
London Print Studio | From Wembley to Soweto and Back | London | August - September 2012
Islington Fire Station | The Islington Project | London | February 2012
Solo Exhibitions
The Plight of the Fishermen | Florence Arts Centre | Egremont Cumbria | August - September 2013
Awards
LPA Student Challenge - Runner up December 2014
Royal Academy - Sixties Snapshot portrait workshop 2014
Grassroots giving / Skipton Building Society Photography Portfolio Award 2014
Ideastap Fund Innovators (23 to 30) 2013
Metro Imaging - Portfolio Prize 2013
Workshops
The Photographers Gallery | Human Rights, Human Wrongs | Workshop 2015
Lomography | analogue workshops 2014-2015
Royal Academy | sixties snapshot portrait workshop 2014
Doomed gallery | zine workshop 2014
The Photographers Gallery | workshop assistant 2014
