Showing work from contemporary photographic portraiture, The Story Portrait asks the photographer to share a story behind one of their portraits.

In photography, I always look at the story within the image, a narrative laid bare. The Story Portrait, follows a deceptively simple format: a photographer, an image, a background story. Yet within this format, detailed information from the photographer is offered up, giving the viewer some insight to the hows and the whys in the image-making process.

As a photographer, I always seek to portray a sense of the person and place in my work. To tell a story, a part of them. As a viewer I admire and am intrigued by the work of others: how they arrive at taking an image, how it ties into concepts and wider interests they pursue. For some, the process of research and decision is evident in their stories of portrait-making; for others it is serendipity, the experience of the day. For many, it is the connection they already have, or make, with those they photograph.

Set up by Margaret Mitchell for the love of a portrait and a good story. Margaret is a documentary photographer who lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

The first photographers contributed to the website in 2017 and from 2020 on, featured photographers also share from their wider work with Instagram takeovers.

All photographs and supplied text are copyright of the featured photographer.