An exhibition of archival works, featuring photographs from Lisel Haas, Emma-Faye Mae Tsui and Francesca Odell.

Curated by Nelly Ating, in collaboration with Bertz Associates and Ffotogallery.

01/10/26 - 31/10/26

Hobbyists and enthusiasts have long understood photography as a labour of love, while researchers approach it with cynicism, scepticism, and more. For archivists, ensuring the provenance and proper ordering of the images in their care is of utmost importance, and these images should be catalogued factually. Overall, a photograph will always generate discussions about who created it, for whom it was created, and why.

Although this analogy of who creates what tends to be subjectivised from a masculine, heterogeneous, and normative worldview that has long trailed photography, it also means that this worldview has made certain photographic producers invisible and their labour unnoticed. Following this notion, this exhibition serves not only as a significant step towards bringing visibility to these voices, since no one has a monopoly on making others visible, but also as a call for us to consider and examine images from three distinctive under-represented voices whose practices emerged from their commitment to documenting the lives, families, and communities around them, which are worth remembering and passing on.

British photographer Francesca Odell, British photographer Emma-Faye Tsui, who is the child of Asian migrants, and German-born Jewish photographer Lisel Haas all have different backgrounds and experiences; their individual journeys highlight the importance of daily life, family connections, friendly interactions, and community reactions to social change, showing why it is important to consider what happens when some record-keepers are absent from public knowledge. Their images remind us of the crucial role that record-keepers play in shaping historical narratives and the need to safeguard this form of observation. Across their practices, family photographs serve as sites for exploring larger questions. The act of photographing relatives, neighbours, and familiar social worlds is also an act of interrogating the identities of those who produce these records. Who belongs within a community? How are identities shaped by migration, class, gender, and place? What stories become visible, and which remain obscured?  These photographers' images suggest that archives are not neutral repositories but living records shaped by the choices, experiences, and positions of those who create them.

This exhibition, "Despite Invisibilities, Female Photographers Are Record-Keepers", invites close observation of fragmented histories that may remain unseen/unheard if not brought into public knowledge.

Ffotogallery
Fanny Street
Cardiff
CF24 4EH

Opening Hours:
Wednesday - Saturday
12pm - 5pm

Open until 13th December 2026