About this Event
Ffotogallery's Feminist Library - save the date!
Join us on 18th February 2026 at 12.00pm for Ffotogallery’s St David’s Day Feminist Library special, featuring artist Kaylee Francis in conversation about her ongoing project, Rough Edges. The talk will explore how photography and activism can challenge misrepresentation and support working-class agency.
The Feminist Library is a space to listen, learn and discuss ideas.
This event is open to the public, free to attend and is part of an ongoing programme hosted by Ffotogallery.
About the artist
Kaylee Francis is a photographer from Swansea, South Wales, whose work challenges the stereotyping of working-class communities. She explores how photography and activism can resist misrepresentation and promote agency. Her practice aims to critique the media’s use of clichéd imagery and narratives, highlighting their impact not just on public perception, but on how communities understand themselves.
About Francis' project Rough Edges
Rough Edges explores themes of class, identity and representation through a deeply personal lens. Born and raised on a council estate in Swansea, Kaylee Francis draws on her lived experience and ongoing connection to the community to offer a counter-narrative to the negative and often clichéd portrayals of working-class life seen in mainstream media.
As a child, she longed to leave the estate, internalising the societal judgement attached to coming from areas like hers. But now, as a parent herself, she reflects differently, recognising the strength, warmth, and resilience of the community that helped raise her. Rough Edges captures this shift in perspective, offering an honest and compassionate portrayal of people and places too often reduced to stereotypes.
Francis's work challenges the way working-class communities are seen, not just by others, but by themselves. Through photography, she documents the everyday realities and quiet dignity of her subjects, celebrating their value while resisting sensationalism. While acknowledging the disadvantages that exist, she is equally committed to highlighting the joy, humour, and solidarity that define community life.
Rough Edges is both a personal act of reclamation and a political statement. It seeks to reshape the narrative through lived experience, presenting an authentic view of working-class life from within.
This talk will be held at Elysium Gallery, Swansea.
*Funded by Welsh Goverment
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Elysium Gallery & Bar, 210 High Street, Swansea, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
