Francesca Phillips is a visual artist and ethnographer. Currently living and working between London and Spain, Phillips began her career in unit stills and specials photography for film and theatre productions, and later trained in the United States at Kodak’s legendary Centre for Creative Imaging, Maine. As a visiting lecturer for four years in computer graphics at The Royal College of Art, London and at Richmond College, The American International University in London, she helped create the first teaching programs in what was then the very new world of digital imaging and image manipulation. She was the first to win membership of The British Institute of Professional Photography for her work in this area.
Under the umbrella of Francesca Phillips Films she wrote, produced and directed Written in the Wind a documentary commissioned by Al Jazeera, Qatar, on el Silbo Gomero, the indigenous whistling language of La Gomera. The film won Best Documentary in Anthropology at the Jade Kunlun Awards, China, and was screened by the mc2 Gallery, Milan and by the University of Milan as the centrepiece of a discussion on the philosophy of language.
White Monks: A Life in Shadows is an in-depth photographic portrait of life inside the strict and enclosed monastic order of the Trappists. It has been exhibited in the UK and Spain, and is accompanied by a limited edition artist´s book held in private and public collections, such as the Herron Art Library at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and The University of Washington Library. A documentary in production was due to be completed in 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Most recently, Francesca conceived, produced and curated The Quest for Ancestral Faces a multidisciplinary art and science research project on the heritage and identity of the people of the Canary Islands. The beginning of this work was exhibited at La Nube di OOrt Gallery, Rome in 2014 under the title Los Canarios. The Quest for Ancestral Faces had its inaugural exhibition at El Museo Canario in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, December 2018 – March 2019. From December 2021 – December 2022 it will be exhibited at Museo Arqueológico de Fuerteventura.
