The Eastern Wood

The theme of people living in contained environments is one that is often explored in Margaret Mitchell's work. The Eastern Wood featured children and teenagers from a hamlet of farmhouses in the Netherlands which were, for the most part, residential in nature. Many people leave cities for smaller locales with the perceived quality of life, especially for their children, often a driving force. There is a beauty in the open landscape, the horses, chickens and dogs, yet these photographs of young people in their environments suggests traces of a life yet unknown, still to be lived. A yearning for other experiences or wishes tempered to the seemingly possible: a teenage soldier about to leave his known life for a tour of Iraq in 2003, the girl who would like to be a model but would otherwise settle for being a hairdresser. Rural versus urban experiences of childhood into young adulthood invite diverse and strong opinion. Some might consider these portraits of ideal lives. Some might not.