Margaret Mitchell (photographer)

Margaret Mitchell (born 1968) is a Scottish portrait and documentary photographer.[1] Her work has recurrent themes of childhood and youth, place and belonging. She works on short and long term personal projects[1] as well as editorially and on commissions.[2][3][4][5] Her photography ranges from exploring communities, children and childhood as well as long-term documentation projects on issues of social inequality. Ideas around the paths that lives take have been explored in several series.[6][7][8] A book of her work, Passage, was published in 2021.

Margaret Mitchell
Born1968 (age 54–55)
Stirling, Scotland
NationalityScottish
EducationEdinburgh Napier University
Edinburgh College of Art
Known forPhotography
AwardsSony World Photography Awards – 2nd place Professional Category, Contemporary Issues (2018)
Royal Photographic Society IPE 160 – Gold Award Winner (2017)
LensCulture Portrait Awards: Finalist Series (2017)
Websitemargaretmitchell.co.uk

In 2018 Mitchell was awarded in the Sony World Photography Awards (2nd place Professional Category, Contemporary Issues)[9][10][11] with her long term series In This Place. In 2017 she was awarded Gold[12] in the Royal Photographic Society International Photography Exhibition IPE 160 for a series of environmental portraits from In This Place. Her work is held in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland.[1][13] Mitchell has exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery as part of When We Were Young | Photographs of Childhood[14] from the National Galleries of Scotland. She has also shown work in the Taylor Wessing Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

Education

Mitchell graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a degree in Photography, Film and Television in 1994[15] and has a Masters in Photography from Edinburgh College of Art (2000).

Career

In 1994, Mitchell made the documentary work 'Family'. The series concentrated on the lives of Mitchell's sister and her children in the Raploch area in the town of Stirling, Scotland, an area which scores highly in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.[16][13] Mitchell states that photography as social commentary is what drew her into being a photographer and how her work 'Family' was 'rooted in the stigmatisation of certain strands of society'[13]

In her early career, she also worked in areas of disability and representation, working within participatory arts practice and as a photography lecturer for over 10 years.[17] Her projects on childhood often contain a psychological aspect and she is quoted as saying she is "pulled by the personal, the experiential in people's lives and that often includes issues-based work".[18] Early portrait series include 'Tiree Schoolchildren',[19] 'Into The Village'[20] and later 'The Eastern Wood'.[7]

Mitchell continued to concentrate on her main themes. Her series 'In This Place' (2016–17) updates the lives of the people in 'Family' (1994) in a story of social inequality alongside the importance of family ties and the experience of loss. The work documents the family's relationships against the backdrop of urban displacement and inequality that passes from generation to generation. This large documentary asks the viewer to consider how society operates and to see that choices are not equal for all people across the economic spectrum. It offers a broader commentary on social and domestic environment, opportunity and social inequality within Scotland and the UK. This work has been widely exhibited within awards, festivals and galleries.[1][10][12][21][22][23][24]

Other projects include The Guisers[25][26][27] which looks at the psychological and cultural aspects of children at Halloween in Scotland. This documentation of a centuries old tradition in Scotland explores the often complex reasoning behind the children's choices in Halloween costumes.[28]

Publications
  • Passage. Liverpool: Bluecoat, 2021. ISBN 9781908457622. With a foreword by Alasdair Foster. Includes the series Family and In This Place.

Awards

Exhibitions

References
  1. "Margaret Mitchell | National Galleries of Scotland". www.nationalgalleries.org. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  2. "Anthony Bourdain: Explore Parts Unknown - Here's how to spend a perfect day in Glasgow". Explore Parts Unknown. 19 December 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  3. "Showing Invisible Britain". British Journal of Photography. 22 October 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  4. "Striking new book reveals raw portraits of 'Invisible Britain'". I Am Birmingham. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  5. "Editorial & Commissions". Margaret Mitchell. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  6. "Margaret Mitchell re-shoots her family over 20 years since she last photographed them". It's Nice That. 11 July 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  7. LensCulture, Margaret Mitchell |. "The Eastern Wood - Photographs by Margaret Mitchell | Text by Sophie Wright". LensCulture. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  8. "Margaret Mitchell Photographed Her Sister's Children Over Twenty Years Ago, and Again in 2017". FotoRoom. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  9. "2nd Place, "In This Place" by Margaret Mitchell". World Photography Organisation. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  10. "2nd Place, "In This Place" by Margaret Mitchell". World Photography Organisation. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  11. "'Scot gets Sony Recognition'". The Scotsman Newspaper. Retrieved 29 May 2019 – via PressReader.
  12. "RPS International Photography Exhibition 160 - RPS". rps.org. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  13. "Photographing Family". National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  14. "When We Were Young | Photographs of Childhood from the National Galleries of Scotland". National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  15. "Edinburgh Napier Degree Show welcomes five new faces to its Alumni Hall of Fame". Napier. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  16. "Margaret Mitchell: In This Place". British Journal of Photography. 7 March 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  17. "Margaret Mitchell Re-Connects | Document Scotland". 8 February 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  18. "An Interview With Margaret Mitchell". Then There Was Us. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  19. "Tiree: Schoolchildren". Margaret Mitchell. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  20. "Into The Village". Margaret Mitchell. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  21. Germany, LFI-Leica Fotografie International, Hamburg. "'Love Me Tender' Contest Winners | LFI News". LFI. Retrieved 28 May 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. Flipsnack. "KLPA 2017 Exhibition Catalogue". Flipsnack. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  23. "Ambit: Photographies from Scotland". Street Level Photoworks. 22 April 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  24. "Family & In This Place". Format Festival. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  25. "The Guisers". Margaret Mitchell. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  26. "Interview: Margaret Mitchell, Photographer - Newspaper Club". www.newspaperclub.com. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  27. "Margaret Mitchell | The Guisers". The Scottish Society for the History of Photography. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  28. "The Guisers by Margaret Mitchell | Document Scotland". 22 October 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  29. LensCulture. "WINNERS—LensCulture Portrait Awards 2017". LensCulture. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  30. editor (12 October 2017). "Renaissance Photography Prize 2017 at the Getty Gallery, London". urban75 blog. Retrieved 28 May 2019. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  31. "Renaissance Photography Prize 2017". Margaret Mitchell. 30 August 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  32. "Award winners announced for the 160th edition of the RPS International Photography Exhibition". rps.org. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  33. "From Montana to Scotland: Portraits dominate RPS photo competition". 4 October 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  34. "RPS photography competition winner shares the emotional loss behind her images". Amateur Photographer. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  35. Pharmacy, The Code. "Photomonitor - Exhibition Reviews, Reviews - Sony World Photography Awards 2018". Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  36. "RPS IPE 160 Award Winners - London Showcase Private View". Eventbrite. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  37. "10 from the North | 10 bho Tuath". An Lanntair. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  38. "2018 Sony World Photography Awards | Somerset House". 14 January 2019. Archived from the original on 14 January 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  39. "Open Eye Gallery: 209 WOMEN". Artinliverpool.com. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  40. "209 Women Exhibition". UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  41. "209 Women". 209 Women. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  42. "Format Festival -". Format Festival. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  43. "Margaret Mitchell Archives". Format Festival. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  44. "Home". Circulations. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  45. "MITCHELL Margaret". Circulations. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  46. "Kinship". Open Eye Gallery. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
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