NEWS: Margaret Mitchell @ Eston Arts Centre

Image: Steven, In This Place by Margaret Mitchell

Award-winning Scottish photographer Margaret Mitchell takes the lead in the reopening of Eston Arts Centre with mindfully selected pieces from not one but two of her collections: Family (1994) and In This Place (2016), at her exhibition which takes place from Thursday 20^th May-Saturday 12^th June.

Three generations of her extended families present their narratives, interlinked with political and personal issues probing the audience to consider options in life and what they believe is set in stone for their destiny. Mitchell speaks of her work: “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’s late sister Andrea and her three children are the focus of Family. They lived in an area constantly placed in the highest 5% of government statistics for multiple elements of deprivation, while In This Place returns to the three children – now parents and adults themselves – to see what their future held. Still housed in a deprived neighbourhood a short bus ride away, what decisions could they honestly make and were they able to affect their destiny?

Margaret Mitchell exhibits Family and In This Place at Eston Arts Centre from Thursday 20^th May-Saturday 12^th June