Joanne Coates
Photographer / Based in London
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...
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About
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.