Margaret Mitchell: Six Works

The Stirling Photography Festival is an inclusive celebration of community. Our mission is to develop skills, create opportunities, and build community through events, workshops, and exhibitions. Partnering with some of photography’s newest and finest talent from across the World, our aim is to connect our community through photography. Since we were established in 2018, we are delighted to have had the support of local businesses and Stirling’s creative and cultural organisations. Partnerships with Scotland's leading centres for photography, including Street Level Photoworks and Stills, strengthen our professional network and assist us in bringing leading artists to Stirling.

Stirling Photography Festival

Margaret will reflect on her storytelling practice and the responsibility and ethics in representing the lives of others through photography

Pathfoot Building

Roots & Rituals-Stirling Photography Festival 2024

Our theme for 2024 is ‘Roots & Rituals’. As this year marks Stirling’s 900th year as a Royal Burgh we have built a programme of events and exhibitions to celebrate the people and the place, including contributions from artists from across Scotland.

We are delighted to welcome Margaret to the Stirling Photography Festival again this year and in partnership with the Department of Culture, Media and Communications and the Art Collection at the University of Stirling she will lead a talk exploring her practice and approach as well as offering us a first look at her work in the university collection. <h4>Talk</h4>Margaret Mitchell will discuss long-term storytelling in her work, looking at projects where she has undertaken this approach, and the methods used. She will discuss the six works on exhibition at the University of Stirling, giving the background to the images and the wider questions raised. Alongside this she will touch on other long-term projects, including topics of responsibility and ethics in representing the lives of others. <h4>Exhibition Information</h4>“I want the viewer to ask themselves a question about how society operates, how choice is related to opportunity and environment. To see that sometimes people choose what they do because really, not much has been offered in the first place.”Margaret Mitchell: Six Works will be on display in Pathfoot Gallery Two from the 26 September 2024- 8 August 2025, with participants getting the chance to have a first look at the exhibition with Margaret.Margaret Mitchell documented the lives of her sister Andrea’s children from childhood to adulthood across three bodies of work. This series of six works, acquired by the University’s Art Collection in 2023, focus on Mitchell's nephew Steven, offering an insight into his life’s trajectory. These images follow Steven from a childhood in the Raploch (Family, 1994) to his adult life in St Ninians (In This Place 2015-2017), to an image of him back in his childhood locale (Into Absence, 2017-2020.Across the three bodies of work, Mitchell reflects on both personal and political questions, asking the viewer to consider the nature of disadvantage and privilege in a history covering class, opportunity and inequality. For Mitchell, the personal narrative of Steven’s path in life reflects a universal issue; whilst this is a personal journey of one boy into man, versions of this story and situation are repeated across countless individuals and societies. <h4>About Margaret</h4>Margaret Mitchell is a documentary photographer based in Glasgow. Her work ranges from exploring communities and children’s worlds to projects on the individual and society. Bridging psychological landscapes and social concerns, her imagery explores the intricacies and complexities of people’s lives with a particular emphasis on place and belonging. Her work has received a number of accolades and has been acquired for the permanent collections of the National Galleries of Scotland, the Martin Parr Foundation and the University of Stirling. She has exhibited widely including at the National Portrait Gallery, London and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. A book of her work, Passage, was published in 2021 and her work has featured in the Guardian, De Correspondent, and the New Statesman amongst others.Born in Stirling, Margaret grew up in Plean and Dunblane and studied at Edinburgh Napier University and Edinburgh College of Art.See more of Margaret's work here<a href="https://margaretmitchell.co.uk/" title="https://margaretmitchell.co.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">margaretmitchell.co.uk</a> <h4>Getting Here</h4> We’ll meet at the Pathfoot reception. Pathfoot is in the University of Stirling Campus, FK9 4LA and can be seen up on the slope on your left as you enter the campus by the main entrance. You can get to the campus by bus, bike or car and parking is free for the first two hours of your visit. For more comprehensive advice on how to get here please visit <a href="https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/art-collection/visitor-information/" title="https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/art-collection/visitor-information/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/art-collection/visitor-information/</a>. The building is an accessible building, with spaces for blue badge holders to the front and rear of the building. More information is on our website, but if you have any questions about access, please email Emma at <a href="mailto:Emma.McCombie@stir.ac.uk" title="mailto:Emma.McCombie@stir.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Emma.McCombie@stir.ac.uk</a> or give us a phone on 01786466050

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