This week, renowned artists and photographers gathered for the Aperture Gala\u2014an annual benefit hosted by the seven-decade-old New York-based nonprofit\u2014to celebrate the talent behind the camera and those advancing the conversation around photography. Among this year\u2019s honorees was Tyler Mitchell, the acclaimed lensman best known for his stirring portraits documenting Black life with vibrant, celebratory imagery exploring themes of empowerment, identity, and community.<\/p>\n
Considered among the most compelling photographers of his generation, Mitchell made history in 2018 when he shot Beyonc\u00e9 for this magazine\u2019s September issue. At 23, he became the first African American photographer to shoot a Vogue cover story\u2014as well as one of the youngest ever. An image from the series was eventually acquired by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.<\/p>\n
More recently, Mitchell lensed the catalog for the Costume Institute\u2019s \u201cSuperfine: Tailoring Black Style\u201d<\/a> show this year and oversaw a 30-page photo essay, A Portrait of the Modern Dandy, which was recently exhibited at Gagosian Burlington Arcade in London.<\/p>\n \u201cI am overjoyed to be honored tonight,\u201d a beaming Mitchell said as he stood on stage at Jazz at Lincoln Center. \u201cAs an artist, whenever your work is being acknowledged, you need to savor that moment. I\u2019m very aware of that.\u201d He went on to explain that as a student at New York University, he \u201cobsessively devoured every issue of Aperture\u201d and would \u201cshow up to any exhibition or opening I was allowed into.\u201d He added, poignantly, that Aperture has always been a \u201cbeacon of possibility\u201d that helped guide him.<\/p>\n Since its founding 73 years ago, Aperture\u2019s publications, exhibitions, public programming, and digital initiatives have inspired photo enthusiasts worldwide. In September, it published a new early-career survey of Mitchell\u2019s work titled Tyler Mitchell: Wish This Was Real<\/a>. (The volume arrived amid a wave of books from longtime Vogue photographers this fall, including Annie Leibovitz<\/a>, Steven Klein<\/a>, and Daniel Arnold<\/a>.) Offering a comprehensive look into the subjects driving his artistic practice, from his genre-fusing portraits captured in the United States, Europe, and West Africa, to his photographs printed on diaphanous fabrics and sculptures that reference Black intellectual heritage, the book also presents perspectives by leading voices and includes a foreword by Anna Wintour, who writes of Mitchell\u2019s self-determination and extraordinary elevation of the everyday. (A limited-edition copy of the book, bound with custom metallic covers and posters, was a highly coveted item at the Aperture Gala’s live auction.) A few weeks ago, the 30-year-old unveiled images from Wish This Was Real as part of his highly anticipated first solo exhibition in Paris, which traces a decade of his creative evolution.<\/p>\n To conclude his speech, Mitchell thanked his mom. \u201cAs I stand here, I really hope I\u2019m a reminder of the importance of institutions, curators, and gatekeepers to continue to engage with artists. There are far too many who never receive their dues until it\u2019s too late. So, it is wonderful to be receiving that due at this moment,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, renowned artists and photographers gathered for the Aperture Gala\u2014an annual benefit hosted by the seven-decade-old New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60,14420,1427,1426,514],"class_list":{"0":"post-114785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-parties","17":"tag-storytypenews-trending","18":"tag-textabovecenterfullbleed","19":"tag-web"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}