This body of work draws deeply from the poetic vision of George Mackay Brown, particularly his novel Greenvoe, exploring the enduring tensions between progress and preservation in rural island life. Through photography, Coates explores the changing landscapes of Orkney—both physical and cultural—by leaning into the notion of the anti-idyll: the disruption of the pastoral dream and the confrontation with modernity on the margins.

Brown’s Greenvoe tells the story of Hellya, a fictional Orcadian island untouched for generations, until the arrival of a mysterious and Orwellian operation, "Black Star", threatens to dismantle the rhythms and resilience of the community. In this work, fiction mirrors reality. Orkney, for all its beauty and perceived remoteness, has long stood at the crossroads of change: from the oil terminal at Flotta to its current position as a leader in marine science and renewable energy. Beneath these transformations, the essence of island life, the stories, the people, the land, remains strong.

Coates investigates the tension between tradition and transformation. The stoicism of the people, the enduring power of the land, and the mythic quality of island living. Stories are not only a means of remembering; they are how culture evolves. In Orkney, storytelling is part of the everyday culture. It is rooted in community, intergenerational knowledge, and a deep relationship with nature. It is how resistance is voiced and how identity endures.

“Influenced by Brown’s lyrical and deeply local writing, I challenge the idea of the rural as isolated or backward. For those who call the islands home, Orkney is not remote; it is interconnected. Technology, research, and art all converge here, but so do myth, memory, and the sea’s vast possibilities. The coastlines, farms, and harbours are not simply landscapes; they are layered sites of meaning. The sea, in particular, is not a boundary but a passage, a space of both loss and potential. This work is as much about listening as it is about seeing. I met those who live from the land and the sea, those who have left and returned, and those who arrived in search of something intangible. Through portraiture, landscape, and documentary imagery, I tell a story of rural life that is neither romanticised nor diminished but seen in all its contemporary complexity.” Joanne Coates

About The Artist

Joanne Coates is a British visual artist and photographer whose practice explores rurality, working class histories, and hidden forms of social inequality through storytelling and multimedia.  Raised in rural North Yorkshire, Coates brings a lived understanding of isolation, resilience, and the cultural richness of communities to her work. Her approach challenges romanticised or reductive representations of the countryside, focusing instead on lived realities, intergenerational knowledge, and the tensions between change and tradition.

Coates is a Jerwood/Photoworks Award recipient, and her work has been exhibited nationally, including at the Open Eye Gallery, Impressions Gallery, and The Baltic. She has undertaken residencies and commissions across the UK, often working collaboratively with communities whose stories have historically been overlooked or misunderstood. Her practice is grounded in social documentary and narrative, drawing on literature, oral history, and folklore as key sources of inspiration.

Joanne Coates