For much of history, depictions of Black life filled with ease, playfulness and joy have been remarkably rare…Tyler Mitchell’s early portraits are, in some ways, a response to this. His portraits communicate a sense of lightness, as Black subjects move freely through colourful settings, playing or resting, while donned in beautiful garments or the comfiest pair of jeans.

These vibrant portraits stand in sharp contrast with dominant visual representations of Black bodies, the subjects of Mitchell’s work. In his series I Can Make You Feel Good, Mitchell envisions a reality that felt and still feels painstakingly far from the state of Black life, marked by racial injustice, systemic oppression and state violence. This tension between utopia and reality reached its crescendo in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic: as the world stood still, and outrage erupted in response to the murder of George Floyd, Mitchell turned to his camera and created portraits of Black joy, togetherness and imagined futures.

Through the image Riverside Joy, Mitchell explores his visions of radical joy against the backdrop of the American South. Partly inspired by his childhood in the state of Georgia, Mitchell utilises staged composition as a stylistic tool to reimagine the oppressive legacies historically rooted in the Southern states of the U.S. Through visual dialogue between land and people, he reclaims and reconstructs this contested site of racialised trauma to a place of shelter, leisure and belonging. The warm golden light and the soft-focus hue create a dream-like setting, a fantasy, or a memory that has never truly existed. By situating an intergenerational group of Black bodies in wide, luscious, landscapes, he signals towards fruitful futures. 

Tyler Mitchell’s visual language is a language informed by a sense of togetherness and care and influenced by fashion photography and digital culture. Reflected in the poses and poise of his subjects is Mitchell’s eye for graceful style. The portraits Untitled (Two Girls Embrace) and Untitled (Communion in a Landscape), featuring elegantly fitted garments, are a clear example of the thoughtful fluidity of his practice, as he oscillates between his independent art practice and commercial assignments.

While photography has been credited with the power to accurately document reality, historically, it has been instrumental in shaping and upholding racial injustice, and complicit in the distortion of truth. These themes are particularly at play in the depiction of Black bodies, as photography was often used within pseudo-scientific frameworks to classify racial types and impose dehumanising stereotypes.

Highly aware of this history, Mitchell consciously imbues his work with care and agency as he explores the very idea of Black life and being, resulting in a nuanced representation of Black lives. Even now, as the art world’s attention seems to shift from Black figuration toward Black abstraction, his portraits remain generative: not despite this movement, but in dialogue with the evolving canon of Black artistic expression. Brought together, Mitchell’s images form a reunion of sorts—reunion as symbolic convergence between past, present and future— one that is visible at every point of his career.  

TYLER MITCHELL is an artist, photographer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn. He received his B.F.A. in Film and Television from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. His work introduces new narratives about beauty and desire, embracing themes of the past and creating fictionalized moments of the imagined future. In 2018, he made history as the first Black photographer to shoot a cover of American Vogue for Beyoncé’s appearance in the September issue. The following year, a portrait from this series was acquired by The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery for its permanent collection.

MIRELVA BERGHOUT is a curator of photography with an interest in popular culture, representation and decolonisation. Her previous roles include project management at the Museum Night Foundation (n8) and head of the project department and curator at Foam Photography Museum. At Foam, she curated the exhibition Adorned and contributed to multiple editions of the Talent exhibitions, with a strong emphasis on collaborating with and identifying emerging talent. She also developed and curated public programs that complemented the museum’s exhibitions. Berghout co-curated the Municipal Acquisitions exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, titled Circulate- Photography Beyond Frames. This exhibition foregrounded artists who challenge conventional boundaries of photography, both in form and subject matter. Currently, she is interim curator of photography at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In addition to her curatorial practice, she is a scout for Cultuurfonds (DNB) and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Mondriaan Fund.