Advertisement

Meet Tyler Mitchell, the 25-year-old photographer who captured Kamala Harris

Photographer Tyler -  Tyler Mitchell
Photographer Tyler - Tyler Mitchell

This interview was originally published in August 2020.

Tyler Mitchell broke the glass ceiling at just 23. Only a year after graduating from film school, he became the first black photographer – as well as one of the youngest – to shoot the prestigious September cover for US Vogue. With the help of Vogue’s creative team, Beyoncé picked him for the cover shoot (he was well known to her circle, having photographed her sister Solange). She was drawn to him, knowing what his hiring would mean historically – and in fact, the shoot became so famous that only a year later, one of the images was acquired by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

When Mitchell, now 25, met Beyoncé, he was surprised by her warmth. ‘When she sat down for me, there was immediately the kind of comfort level you’d have with a friend,’ he told Vogue at the time. ‘You’d imagine someone as famous as Beyoncé to be protective of her image, but she was an open book – that’s exactly what you want as a photographer.’

Now, Tyler Mitchell has hit headlines again having photographed the Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris for Vogue’s February issue, which the magazine calls a ‘tribute to her sorority days’.  Two covers have been revealed, one for print and a second digital cover. The former, seeing her dressed down in classic Converses and a casual Donald Deal blazer, and the latter in a powder blue Michael Kors Collection suit.

Harris is set to go down in history as America's first woman and person of colour as Vice President and the cover is deemed a salute to that. 'I grew up from a young age deeply understanding the rich history of these sororities and their significance,' Mitchell told Vogue. 'With this cover shoot with Madam Vice President-Elect Harris, I wanted the set design to pay homage to that history, to her status as an AKA, and Black sororities and sisterhoods worldwide.'

But his photos of Kamala have had mixed reception over the weekend with some turning to Twitter to publicly condemn the print cover in favour of her in the blue suit. 'Kamala looks beautiful in whatever she wears- and I love that she's brought Chucks back- but this Vogue cover is unworthy of the first woman, POC, Vice President of the United States,' one user wrote.

According to HuffPost reporter Yashar Ali, a source 'familiar with the publication plans' says Kamala Harris's team had also shown a preference for the digital cover. 'That was the cover that the Vice President-elect's team and the Vogue team, including Anna Wintour, mutually agreed upon,' Ali wrote in a tweet.

In a statement, Vogue said they chose the informal image as it showed an 'authentic, approachable nature, which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden-Harris administration.'

Mitchell’s photographs and films, are an exploration of black identity and beautifully curated works of art, have what insiders call a light-hearted, exuberant style – and what he calls a ‘black visual utopia’: ‘My photographs visualise what joy could look like for black people, if we weren’t denied certain freedoms historically.’ This feeling of optimism informs his recent exhibition and book I Can Make You Feel Good, shown in Amsterdam at Foam in 2019 and later at New York’s International Center of Photography (the name comes from a Shalamar song he overheard on his way to discuss the exhibition).

As well as Vogue, he has produced work for several other high-fashion magazines, such as i-D and Dazed & Confused, and labels including Prada, Marc Jacobs and Givenchy. He takes inspiration from his personal experiences, but also from history, although he notes that he doesn’t speak for his entire race. ‘I don’t pretend to be globally altruistic,’ he says, acknowledging his middle-class upbringing. ‘I am just coming from the vantage point of being a young, black man who grew up in the South, in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, and who moved to New York.’

Like most people his age, he grew up with social media as a huge part of his life (he has over 300,000 followers on Instagram and in the early days eschewed an agent for showcasing his work on the platform) and has translated this style into his photography. He hopes this allows his work to be seen more and talked about in a deeper, more critical way.

Most of all, he hopes that, in the age of Black Lives Matter, his pictures will challenge society to question the way black people are depicted – too often, he says, they are used in shoots because they are black, not because they are people: ‘For so long, black people have been considered things,’ he has said. ‘The current question is for folks who are white in power in all industries, systems and governments worldwide to reconsider how they operate.’

However, he doesn’t think his images have the power to give any answers. ‘It’s not like photographs talk at you, photographs don’t even necessarily have any role in anything, it’s only up to the viewer what role a photo has.’ One just has to hope that that role is outlook-changing.

All American Family Portrait, 2018

All American Family Portrait, 2018  - Tyler Mitchell
All American Family Portrait, 2018 - Tyler Mitchell

‘Tyra Mitchell is a friend of mine. She’s also a photographer and we have very similar names, which is how we came to know each other. I was inspired by her and her journey with having twin girls at such a young age. The kids [Ava and Aurora] were about six months old and the parents [Tyra and her partner Naeem] in their early 20s. For the shoot, I went out to Howard Beach, an area in Queens, where there’s a history of race riots. It was where a man named Michael Griffith was killed in the ’80s in a racially charged murder. The area had a lot of Trump signs and American flags in people’s yards. As black folks, the American flag isn’t necessarily a welcome sign or a sign of democracy or freedom. It’s a scary one. So I really felt compelled to make this image of a beautiful family unit in front of this tattered American flag.’

Still from Idyllic Space, 2019

Still from Idyllic Space, 2019 - Tyler Mitchell
Still from Idyllic Space, 2019 - Tyler Mitchell

‘I just go back to thinking about lying on my mum’s carpet in Georgia eating gummy bears when I see this image. It’s recreating and plucking out a nostalgic moment from my past… Thinking about how that was a time when  there wasn’t much to worry about.’

Boys of Walthamstow, 2018

Boys of Walthamstow, 2018 - Tyler Mitchell
Boys of Walthamstow, 2018 - Tyler Mitchell

Vogue, September 2018 That historic cover 

Tyler Mitchell photographed Beyoncé for the September issue  - Tyler Mitchell
Tyler Mitchell photographed Beyoncé for the September issue - Tyler Mitchell

Untitled (Toni), 2019 From a shoot  for i-D’s The Voice of a Generation issue, June 2019

Untitled (Toni), 2019 From a shoot  for i-D’s The Voice of a Generation issue, June 2019 - Tyler Mitchell
Untitled (Toni), 2019 From a shoot for i-D’s The Voice of a Generation issue, June 2019 - Tyler Mitchell

I Can Make You Feel Good, by Tyler Mitchell (Prestel, £45), is out now