Margaret Mitchell is a Scottish portrait and documentary photographer living in Glasgow,
Scotland. Her projects range from exploring communities and children’s worlds through to long-term projects on social environment, opportunity and inequality. Her work explores the intricacies and complexities of people’s lives with a particular emphasis on place and belonging. Responsibility, dialogue and collaboration are key components in her approach in working with people.
Mitchell’s work often represents children and young people – those in the midst of establishing a sense of self, transforming from one state to another: child to youth to adult. Her multi award-winning series “In This Place” involved working with her extended family and connecting their personal circumstances with political systems, specifically their experiences of cycles of inequality over the past three decades. This work can be seen in her book ‘Passage’ which was published by Bluecoat Press in 2021. Her ongoing work is supported by Creative Scotland and explores further issues around sense of place, working in depth with people with lived experience of homelessness.
Mitchell studied at Edinburgh Napier University (1994) and Edinburgh College of Art (2000). Work has been exhibited widely including at the National Portrait Gallery, London; FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby; Festival Circulation(s), Paris; Somerset House, London; the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh and Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow. She is the recipient of a number of awards including within the Sony World Photography Awards and The Royal Photographic Society’s IPE160. Her work has been acquired for the permanent collections of the National Galleries of Scotland and the Martin Parr Foundation. Alongside working on personal projects, recent clients include the Guardian, Telegraph Magazine and Shelter Scotland.