Photographer Tyler Mitchell is showcasing a decade of groundbreaking work that presents new visual narratives of Black life, focusing on beauty, intimacy, and empowerment as central themes. His first solo exhibition in France, titled "Wish This Was Real," is currently running at MEP Paris until January 25, 2026, featuring photography, video, and sculpture that traces nearly ten years of artistic creation.
Mitchell's journey began as a teenager in Atlanta, where he discovered visual culture through skateboarding and social media platforms, particularly Tumblr. His early photographic work captured young Black people in moments of joy and carefreeness, developing a practice that was both deeply personal and community-focused. The eclectic aesthetic of Tumblr exposed him to an unexpected blend of art history and contemporary culture, shaping his unique artistic vision.
Drawing inspiration from filmmaker Spike Jonze, including his 1991 work "Video Days," Mitchell initially documented skateboarding groups before relocating to New York. There, he discovered British magazines i-D and Dazed, which he considered his "bibles of cool," along with Ryan McGinley's influential photobook "The Kids Are Alright" from 2000. These references helped Mitchell develop a perspective where skateboarding represented not just competition, but a form of collective fulfillment and artistic expression.
Mitchell's early photographic and video experiments, often created spontaneously with friends, evoked the parks and fields of his childhood. These works took on deeper meaning against the backdrop of increasing violence against Black men and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement following the 2013 acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer. His images of suspended moments of leisure and light functioned as acts of self-protection, offering brief respites of freedom and joy in a world marked by constant threats of violence.
In Brooklyn's historic Black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Mitchell brought together friends and relatives to create powerful works that explore themes of legacy and heritage. The elegant townhouses, often passed down through generations, serve as backdrops for reflections on dress rituals and the enduring power of appearance. These photographs exemplify key elements of Mitchell's practice: the expressive power of fashion, connections between collective memory and lived experience, and the intimacy found in everyday life.
Mitchell's recent works incorporate textile elements including silk, jersey, linen, and cotton, hung from clotheslines or stretched across wooden frames. These pieces maintain the vividness characteristic of fashion photography while introducing a more elusive, tactile presence that adds depth to his artistic expression. Through his "Curtain Call" series from 2018, Mitchell positions himself within a lineage of artists who have used cameras as tools to reshape representations of Black life.
The photographer draws extensively on Southern landscapes as repositories of memory and meaning, with photographs staged in Georgia and rural England reflecting what he calls a "postcolonial pastoral." These depictions of land are shaped by both romanticism and historical pain, echoing themes found in Toni Morrison's writings. His 2021 series "Dreaming in Real Time," created in Georgia, draws inspiration from painters Georges Seurat and Kerry James Marshall, as well as Julie Dash's 1991 film "Daughters of the Dust."
After studying film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and graduating in 2017, Mitchell transitioned to photography and achieved historic recognition. In 2018, at just 23 years old, he produced portraits of singer Beyoncé for American Vogue's September issue, becoming the first Black photographer to shoot the magazine's cover. This achievement marked a significant milestone in fashion photography and demonstrated Mitchell's growing influence in the industry.
Mitchell has participated in numerous fashion collaborations, creating his own visual language that blends gentleness with wonder. His work demonstrates the influence of what's known as the New Black Vanguard, representing the proliferation of images by Black photographers who work across genres of fashion and art. The "Wish This Was Real" exhibition spans ten years of Mitchell's creative output, showcasing how his vision continues to expand representations of Black life while remaining rooted in historical context and imagined futures.
