Tyler Mitchell

Tyler Mitchell makes photographs and films that explore the possibilities of Black leisure, self-presentation and imagined freedom. Based in Brooklyn, he works across commissioned fashion imagery and projects developed for exhibitions and books. His early photobook El Paquete, published in 2015, followed architecture and skateboard culture in Havana. Later work brings portraiture, outdoor settings and the language of fashion into dialogue with questions about who gets to inhabit an idyllic scene. His artist website allows these strands to be considered together rather than reducing the practice to a prominent magazine cover. For a first reading, compare the placement of a figure in a landscape with the construction of a commissioned portrait. The settings, gestures and relationships between people can carry as much meaning as the individual face.