Tyler Mitchell (born April 12, 1995) is an American photographer. He is based in Brooklyn,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, and is best known for his cover photo of

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

for the cover of '' Vogue''.

Early life

Mitchell grew up in Marietta, Georgia. In ninth grade, he purchased a Canon camera and taught himself how to make skateboarding videos. He was inspired by

Spike Jonze Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...

to learn how to make videos and taught himself how to edit through YouTube tutorials. Mitchell attended The Westminster Schools of Atlanta. In 2015, Mitchell created and published his first book at the age of 20 after visiting Havana, Cuba, on a six-week photography program. While he was there he documented skateboarding life and the architecture in Havana and turned it into a 108-page book called ''El Paquete''. Mitchell went on to attend New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied cinematography in film and television. While at Tisch, he studied with Deborah Willis and graduated in 2017.

Career

Before photographing

for the cover of American '' Vogue''s September 2018 issue at the age of 23, he got a lot of experience making and editing short films at home and also shot music videos for rapper Kevin Abstract during his freshman year of college. Additionally, before the ''Vogue'' cover, Mitchell worked with ''

Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'', targeted at teenagers. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and celebrities. Since ...

'' to document and photograph teen

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...

activists for the magazine's digital issue. A couple months later, Mitchell became the first African American to photograph for the cover of American ''Vogue'', and also one of the youngest photographers ever to do so. In 2019, the

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery The National Portrait Gallery is a historic art museum between 7th, 9th, F, and G Streets NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Founded in 1962 and opened to the public in 1968, it is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Its collections f ...

acquired one of the portraits of Beyoncé by Mitchell for their permanent collection. Mitchell has also shot for companies like

Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was d ...

, JW Anderson, Converse, Nike, and Givenchy. His work includes

fashion photography Fashion photography is a genre of photography which is devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items, sometimes haute couture. It typically consists of a fashion photographer taking a picture of a dressed model in a photographic studio o ...

, artistic photography, and film projects, which include autobiographical topics and themes of identity. In 2019, Mitchell had his first solo exhibition at the Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam from April 19 to June 5 called ''I Can Make You Feel Good'', which included video works, photographs, and installations. The exhibition traveled to the International Center of Photography in New York and was shown there until May 2020.

Legacy and style

Mitchell has been praised for documenting nuanced expressions of black life, which he has referred to as a "Black utopic vision". His exhibition ''I Can Make You Feel Good'' features photographs of black people enjoying daily life, predominantly outdoors, which '' The New York Times'' asserts "challenges the art historical renderings of leisure time as the purview of the white gentry." He explores cultural reclamation in his professional work as fashion photographer. Mitchell cites Ryan McGinley and

Larry Clark Lawrence Donald Clark (born January 19, 1943) is an American film director, photographer, writer and film producer who is best known for his controversial teen film ''Kids'' (1995) and his photography book ''Tulsa'' (1971). His work focuses prim ...

as early influences. His work has also been contextualized in reference to artists including

Kehinde Wiley Kehinde Wiley (born February 28, 1977)"Kehinde Wiley"
''Artnet''. Retrieved October 13, 2010. i ...

Jamel Shabazz Jamel Shabazz (born 1960) is an African-American fashion, fine art, documentary and street style photographer. His work has been published in books, shown in exhibitions, and used in editorial magazine works. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. ...

, and

Nadine Ijewere Nadine Ijewere (born c. 1992) is a London-born photographer of Nigerian-Jamaican parentage. She works in the fields of fashion and portraiture, and is known for celebrating the diversity of her models, many of whom do not conform to the stan ...

Exhibitions

*''I'm Doing Pretty Hood in My Pink Polo,'' Red Hook Labs Gallery and Aperture Gallery, 2018 *''Labs New Artists II'' (group exhibition), Red Hook Labs Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, June 2018 * ''The Way We Live Now'' (group exhibition), Aperture Foundation, New York City June – August 2018 * ''I Can Make You Feel Good'', Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, April–June 2019 *''I Can Make You Feel Good'', International Center of Photography, Jan 2020 – May 2020

Books

* ''I Can Make You Feel Good.'' 2020.

Awards

* Forbes 30 under 30 - Art & Style 2019 * British Fashion Council - New Wave Creative * Dazed Digital - Dazed 100 2016 * BET - BET's Future 40 list 2020 * 2021 Award for Editorial, Advertising and Fashion Photography,

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Tyler Living people African-American photographers 21st-century American photographers The Westminster Schools alumni People from Marietta, Georgia 1995 births Photographers from Georgia (U.S. state) Artists from Atlanta American photographers 21st-century African-American artists