Photographer Tyler Mitchell Goes Solo
The photographer’s new exhibit, “I Can Make You Feel Good,” which is set to take place in Amsterdam, is indicative of the artist’s talents in the realm of photography and film, debuting a collection of photographs, as well as two short film projects.
Tyler Mitchell has already made waves in the world of photography, becoming the first African-American man to shoot an American Vogue cover, which the Atlanta-native did at the behest of the queen herself, Beyoncé. Adding to his already exceptionally impressive resume, the artist’s newest display, debuting at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam from April 19 – June is expected to be just as memorable.
The short video installations, Idyllic Space and Chasing Pink, Found Red, are intended to display the playful side of blackness that is not shown in popular culture, with black stories being stifled by the white narratives of carefreeness that maintains its monopoly on pop culture. As the photographer notes, “I would very often come across sensual, young, attractive white models running around being so free and having so much fun—the kind of stuff Larry Clark and Ryan McGinley would make,” adding, “I very seldom saw the same for black people in images—or at least in the photography I knew of them.”
Mitchell sights Tumblr, or more specifically, tropes of nonchalant, happy-go-lucky, white teens, as his inspiration to make films that center on Black utopianism and the ways racism affects portrayals of young black people in popular narratives.
