The paper examined the work of Franki Raffles (1955-1994), a feminist social documentary photographer, drawing on research from The Raffles Archive Project which gathered together Raffles’ complete photographic practice, together with her notebooks, diaries and press cuttings (Dr Alistair Scott, Edinburgh Napier University); and the recent exhibition ‘Franki Raffles: Observing Women at Work’ at The Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, the first solo exhibition of her work in the twenty-three years since her untimely death (Jenny Brownrigg, curator).
Scott's section of this paper examined Raffles' approach to documenting the lives of women working under two opposing political systems, namely communist and capitalist, to compare the differences of depiction, and reflect on how the images provide evidence of the strength and resilience of women in both types of society.
Brownrigg outlined her curatorial methodology employed for interpreting Raffles work for display and situate Raffles’ practice within a context of UK feminist photography in the 1970s’ and ‘80s.
Throughout her career Raffles photographed women’s lives and work. She was a feminist and Marxist who stated that she hoped that her images would help people see and understand the world more clearly. For ‘To Let You Understand...’ (1988) she photographed women in workplaces across the city of Edinburgh at the time of the Thatcher Conservative government. In the accompanying publication, the photographs were shown alongside text captions with employment and childcare statistics which highlighted aspects of inequality researched by The Women’s Unit Edinburgh District Council, at a time of economic and social insecurity. This project was followed by ‘Soviet Women Workers’ (1989), the result of a three month stay in Russia, Georgia and Ukraine at the time of perestroika. These images captured the communist vision that women could do any type of work – from state farm labourers, road builders and plasterers, to surgeons. The paper will examine how Raffles’ political views shaped her photography and also discuss her approach to representing women as her subject.
This paper also situated Raffles’ work within a wider feminist context comparing her approach to two other studies of women’s working situations to highlight and fight the inequality of women’s pay and conditions (‘Women and Work’ (1975), The Hackney Flashers Collective; and 1973-75 project ‘Women at Work’ by Harrison, Hunt and Kelly).
Franki Raffles was born in Salford and studied at University of St Andrews. Following graduation she moved to Lewis, then to Edinburgh. She documented the lives of women and their work during travels with her family in the 1980s across Russia, China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Hong Kong and the Philippines. In 1992-93 she secured a Wingate Trust Scholarship to travel to Israel. In Edinburgh she also worked as a freelance photographer with schools and women’s groups. She exhibited in Stills Gallery, Edinburgh; Mercury Gallery, London; The Corridor Gallery, Fife; Pearce Institute, Glasgow; and First of May Gallery, Edinburgh.
The paper was selected from open submission for 'Fast Forward: Women in Photography' Lithuanian edition 3-4 Nov 2017 at National Gallery of Arts, Vilnius. The conference was organised by: University for the Creative Arts (UCA), UK; Photography and The Archive Research Centre (PARC) at University of the Arts London, UK; Lithuanian Photographers Association, Lithuania; and Vitas Luckus Photography Centre, Lithuania.
'Fast Forward: Women in Photography' is an on-going initiative founded and led by Anna Fox, Professor of Photography at The University College for the Creative Arts in Farnham with Maria Kapajeva, an Estonian artist who is based in London. The aim of the initiative is to promote and engage with women in photography across the globe. The first conference 'Fast Forward: Women in Photography' was held at Tate Modern, London (2015).
The conference was delivered in partnership with: National Gallery of Arts, Lithuania; and supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania; and Lithuanian Council for Culture.
Other conference speakers included: Dr Adam Mazur,(University of the Arts, Poznań Poland); Prof. Val Williams, (UAL, London UK); Prof. Sigrid Lien, (University of Bergen, Norway); Ella Murtha (The Tish Murtha Archive, Newcastle Upon Tyne UK); and Dr. Agnė Narušytė, (Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania).