Tyler Mitchell

Tyler Mitchell was born on April 12, 1995 in Atlanta, Georgia. Tyler hasn’t revealed any information about his family life. He is not in a relationship for now. He currently lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He loves watching movies and finds inspiration in Spike Jonze’s dreamy filmmaking techniques. Mitchell also loves reading and follows Grace Wales Bonner’s look books. He attributes Guy Debrod’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’ as the most life-changing book he has read.

Tyler Mitchell, who was interested in skateboarding as a teenager, realized that skate montages and videos earned well if shot professionally. He decided to expand his hobby into a career and thus started shooting photos and videos of his friends during skating. To continue working on his interest, he decided to head to Cuba. In 2015, he spent over six weeks in Havana to work on a documentary photography program. These photos were later turned into a photobook titled ‘El Paquete’ (The Packet). This self-published book captured the surfing culture among the youth and the crumbling architecture of Havana. The book was noticed by several critics and later appreciated by many others. It was also included as a small feature in the New York Times. This made Tyler Mitchell a famous name.

He was soon commissioned by several magazines to work on single pieces or complete photospreads. He worked with magazines such as Dazed, Office Magazine, and i-D; shot with brands such as Givenchy, Converse, American Engle; and worked with reputed people such as Spike Lee, Lil Uzi Vert, and Kesley Lu. He interned at Art Partner in 2016 and constantly juggled school, internship, and photography. He learnt about the basics behind magazine photography and fashion photography during his time at Art Panther.

In 2016, he earned a spot in Dazed Digital’s Top 100 Artist list. He had achieved all this even before he graduated in 2017 from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. With a B.F.A in Film and Television, Mitchell started working on short films and personal projects. He turned into a full-time photographer. In time, he earned more commissions from other popular brands and magazines. In 2018, he photographed Zazie Beetz for Vogue and documented Solange Knowles’s art performance at Hammer Museum. After the Parkland shooting incident in February 2018, Tyler expressed his opinion on gun control by working with Teen Vogue’s special feature. He photographed Emma Gonzalez, Sarah Chadwick, Nza-Ari Khepra, and Jaclyn Corin for the March for Our Lives feature on Teen Vogue.

He also shot music videos for Abra’s ‘Come 4 Me’, Kevin Abstract’s ‘Echo’, and Brockhampton’s ‘Dirt’. In addition to photography, Tyler is also a self-taught filmmaker. He has filmed short pieces for clients such as Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, and American Eagle. The Art Baby Gallery in New York featured his short film in an exhibition focusing on young Avant Garde.

He came into limelight in August 2018, when it was revealed that he will be shooting the Vogue’s September issue with Beyoncé. It made the news all over the world because he was the first black photographer to be hired to shoot a cover for Vogue. Beyoncé herself praised Tyler by calling him a ‘brilliant photographer’. He is currently working on several personal projects, including a second book that is in the making. Tyler is also active on Instagram where he has amassed over 176k followers. He has confessed that Instagram played a huge role in his success, and he adopted advertising in it early in his career.

His favorite photographers are William Eggleston, Viviane Sassen, and Clayton Patterson.