Public Preview
Saturday 3rd October
6 - 8pm
‘My pictures reflect my interest in people and the very different ways we have of coping with and enjoying life. I try to convey the essential humanity we share as individuals, despite sometimes very adverse situations, believing that through knowledge and understanding, we can come to a more tolerant attitude towards each other and, perhaps ultimately, change for the better.’
Francesca Odell, 1985
Francesca Odell: Coping With and Enjoying Life features photographs taken by Francesca Odell (1951–2022) between 1983 and 1985. The exhibition highlights key bodies of work Odell made in South Wales while studying documentary photography in Newport. Locations include Cardiff, Gilfach Goch, Maesteg, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, Porthcawl, Swansea and Tonypandy. Images from the series ‘Youth in the Valleys’, ‘Single Parent Dads’ and ‘Keeping the Body Beautiful’ will be shown alongside photographs of Odell’s own community on Sandy Lane in Swansea. Vintage prints from Ffotogallery and the University of South Wales Archives will be displayed together with never-before-seen images from the photographer’s personal archive, currently held by Odell’s daughters.
Building relationships with her subjects was an important part of Odell’s practice. She spent days, weeks and sometimes months getting to know the people she photographed. They chatted, socialised and took photographs together – Odell regularly handed over her camera, inviting the people she wished to photograph to photograph her in return. As a result, Odell’s images offer insider perspectives. Rather than documenting her subjects’ circumstances, her black-and-white photographs capture their emotional lives. Odell’s intimate portraits highlight shared experiences and invite us to find connections across time and place.
Odell painted throughout her life. She studied fine art at Luton and then at Farnham, but left in 1972 to raise her daughters. In 1975, Odell and her young family relocated to Swansea, moving to Sandy Lane to pursue a life ‘full of post-hippy ideals of self-sufficiency’. In 1983, she enrolled on David Hurn’s renowned documentary photography course in Newport, earning her place with a portfolio of images taken on cameras borrowed from her friends on Sandy Lane. Odell regularly returned to Swansea to photograph her family and friends alongside her Newport assignments. In 1985, during the final year of her diploma, Odell was awarded a prestigious Ffotogallery commission. Over six months, she followed the lives of young people living in the South Wales Valleys, producing some of her most intimate and resonant images. In showing these photographs alongside earlier work, the exhibition highlights the threads that run through Odell’s work: moments of connection, shared experiences and an understanding of the different ways of coping with and enjoying life.
This exhibition emerged from ongoing research into Ffotogallery’s archive, focusing on underrepresented artists and overlooked voices. Within this research, Odell’s work stood out as she was the only woman selected for The Valleys Project. Her presence within the archive prompted broader questions about representation, visibility, and whose stories have been preserved. These reflections have informed not only this exhibition but also how Ffotogallery, as an organisation, approach our collections and future programming.
Curated by Samantha McGuire + Chloe Davies
The Turner House
Plymouth Rd
Penarth
CF64 3DH
Opening Hours
Thursday - Sunday
10am - 4:30pm
Open until 8th November 2026
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund