About Fran Monks
Fran Monks is a British portrait photographer, who aims to celebrate the under-celebrated. She is best known for her engaging and painterly portraits of individuals who are changing our world. Her website, How To Make A Difference, features her interviews and portraits of remarkable people, dating back to 2004.
Monks’ work has been acquired by the Science Museum London and the National Portrait Gallery. She has been widely published in national and international magazines and newspapers. Her photographs are currently exhibited in Examination Schools, Oxford, several Oxford Colleges, Lancing College in West Sussex and Selwyn College, Cambridge.
Monks trained as a photographer at the Corcoran School of Art and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC and Central St Martin’s School of Art, London.
Previous and current clients include:
BBC News, BBC History Magazine, World Histories, BBC Focus Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine – Balliol, Keble, St Peter’s, Exeter and Nuffield Colleges, Oxford – The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford – The Financial Times – The Media Trust – Priestman Goode Design Agency – Oxford Festival of the Arts - British Medical Journal - K Magazine
Exhibitions, publications and prizes highlights:
2023 - A Portrait of Lancing - Lancing College, West Sussex.
2022 - A Portrait of Keble II - Keble College, Oxford
- Climate Negotiators via Zoom - World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment
2021 – Climate Negotiators via Zoom - Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
and as part of Photo Oxford.
– Vaccine Trial Participants via Zoom, Oxford History of Science Museum.
– Mothers in Lockdown, Zoom portraits at the Thackray Museum of Medicine, Leeds.
2020 – Social Distance portrait selected by the National Portrait Gallery, London
for the “Hold Still” exhibition.
2019 – The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford “A Nice Cup of Tea” portrait images.
– Keble College, Oxford, “Portrait of Keble. An Installation”.
– Balliol College, Oxford, 9 group portraits of Balliol women.
2018 – Maison de L’international, Le Jardin de Ville, Grenoble City – “One Day Without Us”.
2017 – Two portraits exhibited in “The Full Picture” exhibition in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
2017 – The Gratitude Project Exhibition as part of the Oxford Festival of the Arts.
2014 – Winner of the Oxford, Canal Art Competition.
2012 – Solo Exhibition at Turl Street Kitchen, Oxford: How to Make a Difference.
2011 – World Photography Exhibition, Somerset House, London, image from Royal Wedding.
2011 – Publication of the book How to Make a Difference.
2009 – Solo Exhibition at Venetia’s, Hackney: Entering Motherhood.
2009 – How to Make a Difference TV documentary for the Community Channel.
2009 – Prize winner in the international photography competition: Fresh M.I.L.K.
Monks’ images have been published in the Guardian, the Washington Post, New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Forbes, US News, Smithsonian, the Telegraph, the Independent, Good Housekeeping, BBC Online, PBS & Radio Times.
Fran Monks is based in Oxford, UK, but can travel. She even speaks rusty Chinese and Japanese!