Trained in Fine Art, Rae’s work uses photography and text to explore representation, femininity, consumer culture and the everyday.
Rae's research aims to analyse the labour of femininity in a contemporary photographic culture where this still remains largely invisible. My research often uses a model of image-making which is largely dialogic and interactive in its involvement of participants. Central to this is the relationship between photographer and subject.
Previous mixed media publications include A Real Work of Art and Kurl up n Dye, a monograph published by Wild Pansy Press with an introduction by Simon Grennan and incorporating photographs and typography investigating the vernacular in British high street culture. A feature on the book has aired on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour. The research has led to a number of conference papers and articles exploring the photographic image in terms of the vernacular, cultural anthropology and material culture.
The Grammar of Glamour; Shooting the High Street involves an investigation into the materiality of photographic media. The project uses experimental visual ethnography that explores relationships between material culture, social space and the street.
Current work in progress is Portrait of a Woman . At my mothers death I inherited photographs and letters which pointed to an interesting family history. At the work’s centre are the memories of life in Basque Spain in the 1930s embedded in particular stories passed down to me by my mother.
MA Social History of Art, University of Leeds
BA Fine Art, University of Brighton
Inés is currently Lecturer in Creative Media (Photography) at Plymouth University
Publications
Books/Book chapters
Rae, I (2013) Remembering the City - Memory Images in Momchedjikova, B (ed.) (2013) Captured by the City; Perspectives in Urban Culture Studies
Cambridge Scholars Press
Rae, I. & Grennan, S. (2006) Kurl up n Dye, Leeds, Wild Pansy Press
Articles
Rae, I. (2009) ‘Shear Class: a visual ethnography of the British hair salon’ in X-cp Streetnotes www.xcp.bfn.org/streetnotes.html
Rae, I. (2008) ‘Some will pay (for what others will pay to avoid): Vernacular typography and the irreverence of popular culture’ in
F. Hackney, J. Glynne & V. Minton, eds, (2008) Networks of Design, Brown Walker Press
Exhibition Catalogues
Corrin, C., Rae, I., Watson, D. (2007) Inbetween Spaces, Manchester, Look07/Redeye ISBN 978 1 901922 63 2
Lansley, J., Rae, I., Tormey, J. (2006) Settling In, Arts Council England ISBN 9781901922 65 3
Rae, I. (2003) A Real Work of Art, Lancaster, Folly Gallery ISBN 1 901922 49 9
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 forthcoming Portrait of a Woman, Photomuseum, Zarautz, San Sebastián
2016 The Grammar of Glamour, Lock-In Gallery, Brighton Photo Biennial Festival Fringe Exhibition
2013 Memory City, Scott Building, Plymouth University
2006 Kurl up n Dye, Cube, Manchester
2003 A Real Work of Art, Folly Gallery, Lancaster
2000 Perm-u-tations, Installation as part of YOTA, Preston
1996 Ideal Home, Site Gallery, Sheffield
1994 Spaces of Difference/Memories of Place Lanchester Gallery, Coventry
1993 Project 10 00 22 Selen-Oldenstrand, Stockholm
1993 Voices of Fury Pavilion Photography Centre, Leeds
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Family and Other Ties, UCA Farnham, 27 Oct - 9 Dec 2022
2018 Postcards from a commute, Plymouth Art Weekender, September 2018
2017 (Our) Generations and (Expanded) Geographies: Living Feminist Lives for
A Feminist Space at Leeds; Looking back to Think forward Dec 16-17 2017, University of Leeds
2016 Work and Play , Lock-In Gallery, Brighton Photo Biennial Festival Fringe Exhibition October 2016 with Dougie Wallace and Cesar de Luz
2016 Guards, Plymouth Art Weekender September 2016
2014 Karst Open Studios, Plymouth
2013 Textually Active 2, Athenaeum, Plymouth
2007 Inbetween Spaces Billboard bus tour , Cube Manchester
2006 Settling In, 338 Great Western St, Manchester
2005 Mind Where You Look, Gallery Oldham
2004 Joy, International 3, Manchester
2003 Thermo 03, The Lowry, Manchester
2003 PureScreen 2 at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
1992 BT New Contemporaries ICA London and touring
Curatorial
With Martin O’Brien, UCLan, ‘Memory City’ Funded by Sandbox, UCLan 2008 (Lead Applicant: Rae)
Using a sequence of themed workshops the project focuses on: the pleasures, risks and dangers of city life; mobility and the cosmopolitan city; and cultural landscapes of the city. The aim is to see how people use their memories to construct their understandings of public space in the present.
With Claire Corrin and Daniella Watson ‘Inbetween Spaces’ Funded by Arts Council England Completed 2007 (Lead Applicant: Rae)
Inbetween Spaces (2007), explores ideas of marginality on several billboard sites around Manchester and Salford. The bus tour explored the marginal and overlooked in the urban fabric through the rehearsed performance of a tour guide.
With Jo Lansley, Manchester Metropolitan University ‘Settling In’ Funded by Arts Council England for British Art Show 6 Fringe. Completed April 2006 (Lead Applicant: Rae) Taking home as it’s starting point Settling In explores how we move within and experience this most intimate of spaces – the home becomes a metaphor for the creative process, a locus for female activity, as well as a place of secrets and self, of rituals and routine.
Grants/Awards
2021 Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice for Portrait of a Woman
2008 Sandbox Sabbatical (internal Uclan award) for Memory City
2007 Arts Council England for Inbetween Spaces
2005 Arts Council England for Settling In
2005 Arts and Humanities Research Council Small Grants in the Creative and Performing Arts for Kurl up n Dye
2003 Arts and Humanities Research Council Small Grants in the Creative and Performing Arts for A Real Work of Art
Invited talks and lectures
2022 Past, Present, Future BSA Auto/Biography Conference Oxford 13th - 15th July 2022
2022 Storytelling and Trauma Athens 9th and 10th July 2022
2018 Visual cultures, consumerism and the grammar of glamour, Sociology Research Seminar Series at Plymouth University, Feb 21 2018
2018 Undertaking Effective Community Engagement Through Community-Led Research: The Maker Memories Project, Guildhall, Plymouth January 22 2018
2017 (Our) Generations and (Expanded) Geographies: Living Feminist Lives for A Feminist Space at Leeds; Looking back to Think forward December 16-17 2017, University of Leeds
2015 Visiting Lecturer Program, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts
2014 Helsinki Photomedia Conference, Aalto University, Helsinki
2013 Contemphoto '13, Istanbul, Turkey
2012 The Grammar of Glamour, Helsinki Photomedia Conference, Aalto University
2010 Pathways Lecture Series, Parsons The New School, New York
2010 Memory City; Remembering the City. MAPACA 2010, Alexandria VA. Urban Culture Panel
2009 Kurl up n Dye; the vernacular in British High Street culture. Northernness; Ideas and Images of the North in Visual Culture, University of Northumbria
2009 Shear Class; an ethnographic study of the British hair salon. MAPACA , Boston. Urban Culture Panel
2008 Some will pay (for what others will pay to avoid): Vernacular typography and the irreverence of popular culture. Networks of Design, University College, Falmouth
2008 Kurl up n Dye; the vernacular in British High Street culture. The Street, University of California at Irvine
2006 Towards an Ethics of Generosity in Contemporary Photographic Practice. North West Art and Design Research Seminar, Liverpool John Moores University