FRANKI RAFFLES: PHOTOGRAPHY, ACTIVISM, CAMPAIGN WORKS – AN EXHIBITION REVIEW
Stephanie Siu Yau Leung (12.03.2025)
Franki Raffles’ retrospective exhibition, Photography, Activism, Campaign Works, held from May 2024 to March 2025 at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, delves into a pivotal decade of her career as a photographer and activist. The exhibition is divided into thematic areas exploring gender, labour, disability, and class.
Powerful Themes
The exhibition highlights the resilience of marginalised communities, particularly women. Raffles’ focus on working-class struggles, disability advocacy, and gender-based violence is direct and unflinching. Her black-and-white photographs exude a raw, journalistic quality that transcends documentation.
The Zero Tolerance campaign, which Raffles co-founded in 1992, stands out. Starkly designed to grab attention, it features posters with unsettling messages. Texts like, “By the time they reach eighteen, one of them will have been subjected to sexual abuse,” are paired with mundane domestic images. These juxtapositions confront the hidden nature of gender-based violence, reminding us it exists closer than we think.
This section’s strength lies in its clarity and focus, making its message impossible to ignore. The photographs and materials are impactful and well contextualised, offering both emotional and intellectual entry points into Raffles’ activism.
Another area focuses on factory work, depicting the lives of working-class women in industrial labour. Unlike the Zero Tolerance section, this resonates with quiet dignity.
Factory Work: Personal Connection and Reflection
Growing up in Hong Kong in a working-class family, I felt a personal connection to these photographs. Relatives, including my mother, worked in factories. Seeing these images was humbling, offering a window into struggles I was shielded from. These narratives, though distant, feel deeply woven into my own history, reminding me that the privileges I enjoy today were built on such sacrifices.
The images also brought to mind fictional portrayals, like Lila’s experience in My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, working in a sausage factory—a rare acknowledgment of labour in popular culture. Seeing these photographs brought that story to life and made me reconsider how much fiction softens these realities. Raffles’ work, by contrast, brings out the unvarnished truth.
Despite its emotive power, this section falters slightly in providing broader socio-political context. More captions or materials could have framed these stories within larger structural realities.
Women in Asia: Visually Compelling but Underexplored
Another thematic area presents Raffles’ photographs of women in Asia, particularly in rural and urban settings. These images are visually compelling but lack contextualisation. Some were taken in Hong Kong, but this is not made explicit.
While I hoped to connect personally with these images, the absence of location labels made it difficult. This lack of specificity stripped the photographs of cultural nuance that could have deepened their impact.
The ambiguity left me feeling frustrated; these could have been stories of women I might know, but the lack of detail kept them distant.
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Disability and Ableism: Confronting Biases
Raffles’ ability to capture emotion and humanity is undeniable. Her portraits of working-class women, rural labourers, and disabled individuals radiate dignity.
For example, the series Your Frame of Mind is Our Disability challenges perceptions of ableism with quiet strength. This series does more than document lives; it accuses, forcing viewers to confront their biases. The phrase turns the lens back on the audience, demanding uncomfortable self-reflection.
Have we, even subconsciously, contributed to ableism? Are our assumptions about ability part of the barriers disabled individuals face? The series reminds us that prejudice is often invisible, buried in assumptions we rarely examine.
However, the voices of Raffles’ subjects are mediated entirely through her lens. While her intent is clear, the absence of personal narratives risks reducing her subjects to symbols rather than fully realised people.
Curatorial Strengths: A Personal Touch
The exhibition’s layout is largely successful, using minimalistic spaces to give the photographs room to breathe. Subdued lighting creates a contemplative atmosphere. Including Raffles’ personal letters and diaries adds a deeply human element to the exhibition.
The diary entries remind viewers that Raffles was not merely a recorder of stories; she was deeply affected by what she saw and photographed. Her writing reflects the emotional toll of witnessing systemic oppression and illustrates the sacrifices she made—not just in time and effort but in carrying these stories.
These letters remind us that activism is not only about raising awareness but also about the emotional labour of continually bearing witness.
Privilege and Perspective: Who Gets to Tell These Stories?
As I engaged with Raffles’ work, I reflected on a larger question: who gets to tell these stories?
Raffles, though empathetic and invested in her work, was a white, middle-class woman photographing working-class women, disabled individuals, and marginalised communities. Her position as an outsider raises questions about power and privilege in storytelling.
The intimacy of Raffles’ work resonated deeply, especially her handwritten letters. Her vulnerability reminded me that activism, even for the most dedicated individuals, comes at a personal cost. I found myself moved but also frustrated.
While Raffles captured the struggles of marginalised communities with sensitivity, I wanted to know more about how her presence in these spaces impacted those she photographed. Were they empowered by her work? Did they feel accurately represented? These questions lingered as I left the exhibition.
As I write this review, I grapple with similar questions. Am I, too, occupying a space of privilege in reflecting on these lives? By writing about this exhibition, am I reinforcing a dynamic where those with access become gatekeepers of stories that are not their own? Acknowledging privilege, as Raffles did, is a start. Recognising our limitations is another.
Can Art Drive Social Change?
One of the exhibition’s central questions—Can art drive meaningful social change?—is both its strength and Achilles’ heel. While the images are impactful, they underscore art’s limitations in addressing systemic inequality.
The Zero Tolerance campaign is a rare exception, showcasing how Raffles’ art intersected directly with policy and public awareness. Many other images stop short of engaging the audience in dialogue about actionable solutions.
Including panels or interactive installations exploring activism’s practical steps could have enhanced the impact. I lingered in the reading area, which encouraged viewers to transform their experience into a more educational one by diving deeper into systemic issues. Yet, whether such reflection can lead to change remains an open question.
Conclusion: A Triumph with Room for Growth
Franki Raffles’ exhibition is a powerful testament to photography’s role in advocacy. It forces viewers to confront uncomfortable truths and sheds light on issues that remain pressing today.
Yet, it also reminds us of art’s limitations. While Raffles’ work is empathetic, it occasionally falters in giving her subjects their own voice or in connecting themes into a cohesive narrative.
For all its imperfections, the exhibition is deeply moving. It is a fitting tribute to an artist who dedicated her life to social justice and a call to action for those who believe in art’s transformative power.
Raffles’ images linger—not just as photographs but as windows into lives that demand to be seen, understood, and championed. If art can indeed drive change, it begins here: seeing, questioning, and striving for better.
Annotation for Images:
Exhibition Set-up and Reading Area, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, 6th November, 2024, by Stephanie Siu Yau Leung
Zero Tolerance (1991-1992), Franki Raffles, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, 6th November, 2024, by Stephanie Siu Yau Leung
Women in China & Tibet (1984), Franki Raffles, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, 6th November, 2024, by Stephanie Siu Yau Leung
To Let You Understand (1989), Franki Raffles, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, 6th November, 2024, by Stephanie Siu Yau Leung
Your Frame of Mind is Our Disability, Franki Raffles (1992-1993), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, 6th November, 2024, by Stephanie Siu Yau Leung
Diary extracts exhibited, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, 6th November, 2024, by Stephanie Siu Yau Leung
To Let You Understand (1989), Franki Raffles, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, 6th November, 2024, by Stephanie Siu Yau Leung
Exhibition Wall Text,Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, 6th November, 2024, by Stephanie Siu Yau Leung