Women Workers, Russia, Franki Raffles. All images courtesy Franki Raffles estate

READING THE COLLECTIONS, WEEK 47: CELEBRATING WOMEN: THE FRANKI RAFFLES PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION

Spectacular work by photographer Franki Raffles

Born in Manchester and raised in London, Franki Raffles was an alumna of St Andrews University (MA in Moral Philosophy, 1977). After graduating she made her home in Scotland, first on the Isle of Lewis and later in Edinburgh, where she rapidly established herself as a leading feminist social documentary photographer. Franki’s desire to document a wide range of social, cultural, and political models led her to travel extensively, sometimes accompanied by one or more of her children, and during her final pregnancy she travelled to Israel to research and capture the lives of Jewish women who had left the old USSR to settle in Israel. Tragically, and poignantly, she passed away in 1994 at the age of 39, while giving birth to twin girls.