Skip to main content
ExhibitionFeaturedFront Page

Margaret Mitchell: An Ordinary Eden

By 21st June 2023No Comments
Colour photograph. Tam sits in a stool on a balcony comprised of narrow white walls and a green carpet. He wears a grey tracksuit and a black baseball cap. His hands are folded in his lap.

Tam on his balcony (2020) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. A young girl (Summer) sits on a bed, wearing a white polo shirt and grey pinafore (probably a school uniform). Towards the back of the image, her mum sits on a different edge of the bed holding a cuddly toy. She wears a red and black check top.

Summer visiting her mum (2021) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. A person in a red coat sits on a bed, wearing a pink face mask. Their face is turned to the right of the image. On the wall above them, we see a framed photograph of Marilyn Monroe.

Name Withheld. From the series 'An Ordinary Eden' © Margaret Mitchell, courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. A person stands in front of a yellow wall, wearing a black tracksuit.

Najib out the back of his temporary accommodation (2022) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. Michael faces the camera. He is not wearing a shirt. The E.N. of his 'E.D.E.N.' neck tattoo is visible, alongside a long, faded scar on his shoulder.

Michael (2020) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. Michael sits on the blue carpet, leaning against a white wall. We see sun streaming in through a window, casting a faint shadow on the wall behind him.

Michael in his temporary homeless accommodation (2020) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. Mark stands in a park, facing away from us into the treeline. He wears a red tank top and has a black top tied around his waist which reads '#AndysManClub #ItsOkayToTalk'.

Mark (2021) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. A heavily darkened room. Marcus looks left, though a window, the only point of light. There is a Santa Claus sticker on the window.

Marcus, age 31, in his first ever home at Christmas (2020) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. Lyndsey looks beyond the camera, wearing a fur lined parka. She stands against a grey wall.

Lyndsey (2019) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph of a heart shaped mirror and empty photograph frames on a blue wall.

Graeme’s living room wall (2021) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. Graeme sits against a blue wall, wearing a blue polo shirt and grey tracksuit bottoms.

Graeme in his living room (2020) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. Marcus stands against an undecorated wall stained with drips. He wears a navy blue jacket and green trousers.

Marcus in his living room © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. Andrew sits on concrete stairs, in front of a wall painted yellow.

Andrew in the stairwell (2020) © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. A block of flats and a small wooden hut amid a snowy landscape.

From the series 'An Ordinary Eden' (2021) © Margaret Mitchell, courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

Colour photograph. Ryan sits on bare wooden floorboards, flecked with paint. The wall behind is pink.

Ryan in his living room © Margaret Mitchell, from the series 'An Ordinary Eden', courtesy of Street Level Photoworks

An Ordinary Eden – Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Mitchell’s latest solo exhibition, now on view at Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, explores the importance of housing, home, and belonging.

Scottish photographer Margaret Mitchell’s exhibition An Ordinary Eden, currently on display at Street Level Photoworks, is an examination of the “importance of home and belonging”. Comprising a series of portraits of people who have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, this body of work reflects on the emotional and practical consequences of being without a home.

During the course of the project, which started in 2019, Margaret worked with organisations across Scotland including Shelter Scotland, a charity campaigning for tenant rights. Accompanying the exhibition is a book, Stories on Finding Home, which features contributions created by the people Margaret photographed.

The title of the exhibition is inspired by the neck tattoo of Michael, who Margaret has photographed in his temporary accommodation. The idea of ‘Eden’ — a paradise filled with beauty, pleasure and plenitude — is subverted in the world that Margaret presents to us.

Society views homelessness as rife with instability, uncertainty, and a lack of dignity. Oscillating between judgement, apathy, or avoidance, our instinctive response to homelessness often fails to consider the personal stories of homeless individuals.

That’s the narrative Margaret is hoping to change with An Ordinary Eden; here, she questions and reflects upon the kind of society we want to create —  “A society that cares for others in a timely manner or one that ignores, disregards, doesn’t try hard enough”.

Whether these men and women are in a temporary accommodation or have found something permanent, the spaces haven’t become their home yet. The rooms are sparsely furnished; the photo frames are still to be adorned with pictures. At the moment, Margaret’s sitters seem to have been captured in a state of rest.

Not the kind one experiences after achieving one milestone, before embarking on the next, but a brief moment of respite in an otherwise unrelenting life. As the name suggests, ‘Eden’ isn’t a fantastical utopia; it’s fairly ordinary — a process of going back to a regular life, reclaiming a semblance of normality and dignity along the way.

An Ordinary Eden is on display at Street Level Photoworks until 16th July 2023.

Listen to Margaret introduce An Ordinary Eden here. She also gave a guided tour of the exhibition at Street Level Photoworks, a recording of which can be viewed here.

 

By Shyama Laxman

Tags:

Help support our work by texting 100H to 70085 to donate £5.

Texts cost £5 plus one standard rate message. Thank you!

Hundred Heroines is supported by