Frankie Mills is a journalist and photographer based in the UK.
Frankie has reported on Ukrainian refugees' first two years of life in the village of Moorhaven, Devon, UK following Russia's invasion, women fleeing Iran in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death, the Uyghur diaspora in Norway’s Arctic Circle, and life in an abandoned Greek primary school used as a shelter by families fleeing the Middle East.
Frankie’s work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery as a finalist in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 & 2025. She was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 and won OpenWalls Arles and Portrait of Britain Vol. 6. She has shot for the New York Times, Guardian, Coda Story, Zeit, and others. She began her career working as a staff photojournalist for DevonLive, a local paper in the Southwest of England, where she specialised in human interest features about hidden communities.
Frankie is a self-taught photographer. She graduated with a Master’s in International Journalism from City University and attended the 2023 Eddie Adams Workshop.
Featured
08/12/24: "The Streets of My Country Are Full of Fury": New York Times
15/07/24: "We Have to Live Now’: Stories of a Home Out of Reach," New York Times
03/03/24: "'This was their home too': Frankie Mills's intimate portraits of Ukrainian refugees in the UK" The Guardian
08/01/24: "Portrait of Britain Vol.6 winners: Capturing the tapestry of life in Britain" British Journal of Photography
18/10/23: "Picturing Displacement Symposium" The Martin Parr Foundation
17/10/23: "Frankie Mills talks about 'Good Evening, We Are from Ukraine" Counterpoints Arts
01/10/23: "Refugee festival comes to Bristol to challenge perceptions" BBC
15/08/23: "Would I lie to you? Images that speak the truth - in pictures" The Guardian
15/08/23: "Photography awards: Open Walls Arles 2023" The Times
15/06/23: "Announcing The Winners of Arles OpenWalls" British Journal of Photography
Assignments
08/12/24: "The Streets of My Country Are Full of Fury": New York Times
15/07/24: "We Have to Live Now’: Stories of a Home Out of Reach," New York Times
07/12/23: "Green Colonialism" Noema Mag
07/12/23: In the Swedish Arctic, a battle for the climate rages Coda Story
27/07/23: "The Secret Movement Bringing Back Europe’s Wildlife" Noema Mag
25/10/23: "The ferries of Istanbul: a day at the crossroads of Europe and Asia" Guardian
15/03/22: "‘We’ll kill you’: Uyghur exile who fled to Arctic Circle still fears reach of Chinese state" Guardian
15/03/22: "China’s crackdown on Uyghurs reaches the Arctic" CodaStory
23/10/22: "The battle over space emissions in Cornwall" Al Jazeera
25/07/19: "Beirut's Underground Drag Scene is Fighting Back" HuckMag
31/01/19: "A Year in the Life of an Athens Refugee Squat" HuckMag
07/09/19: "Stop DSEI: the People Disrupting the ‘World-Leading’ Arms Fairs" NovaraMedia
10/10/2018: "Division and Disparity on the streets of Mexico City" HuckMag
24/02/2017: "The Central American Refugees Behind Trump's Border Wall" International Press Foundation
Awards
15/10/24: Shortlist / Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize / National Portrait Gallery.
01/03/24: Shortlist / Palm* Photo Prize
24/02/24: Shortlist / Sony World Photography Awards
14/11/23: Winner / Portrait of Britain Vol. 6 / British Journal of Photography
25/09/23: Finalist / Critical Mass Top 50 / Photo Lucida
21/08/23: Shortlist / Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize / National Portrait Gallery
28/06/23: Shortlist / International Photography Exhibition 165 / Royal Photographic Society
15/06/23: Winner / Arles OpenWalls / British Journal of Photography
25/10/22: Shortlist / Portrait of Britain Vol.5 / British Journal of Photography
Exhibitions
19/04/24-06/05/2024: Sony World Photography Awards / Somerset House, London, UK
01/02/24: Photo Lucida Critical Mass Top 50 / Colorado Photographic Arts Center, USA
15/10/23: Picturing Displacement Group Symposium /The Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol
01/10/23-01/11/23: Picturing Displacement Group Show / Royal Photographic Society, Bristol
06/10/23 - 28/02/23: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize / National Portrait Gallery, London
05/07/23 - 30/07/23: Open Walls Arles / Galerie Huit Arles, France
15/12/22: Group Show / Amp Gallery, Peckham
31/01/17: Who What Where / Brixton Pound, UK