Joanne Coates is a working-class visual artist working within the medium of photography. She lives and works across the North East of England. Her work explores rurality, hidden histories, and inequalities relating to low income through photography, installations and audio, which she uses to question stories around power, identity, wealth and poverty. She was first educated in working-class communities and then at London College of Communication. Participation and working with communities remain an important aspect of her work. In 2022, Coates was the winner of the Jerwood/Photoworks Award and has since exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. Her work is often shown in site-specific contexts in rural areas. Coates’ work is in the permanent collection of MIMA. She has completed editorial commissions for major UK publications including Bloomberg, Vice, The Telegraph, The Financial Times, BBC, Insider and The Guardian. She is also Director of Roova Arts, which campaigns for class equality in creative industries through school programmes and mentorships.
