Tyler Mitchell’s Wish This Was Real: A Decade in Print

Tyler Mitchell’s new monograph from Aperture surveys ten years of his practice across photography, video, and sculptural works in fabric and wood. It is an intimate expansion of a visual world that holds Black leisure, tenderness, and everyday beauty with care. It is also a record of a young artist shaping the cultural memory of our time.

Tyler Mitchell, Untitled (Topanga II), 2017 © Tyler Mitchell

Edited by Brendan Embser, the book gathers wisdom from voices across art, fashion, and criticism. Anna Wintour contributes the foreword, alongside texts by Sophie Cavoulacos, Rashid Johnson, Robin Coste Lewis, Sarah Lewis, Drew Sawyer, Rachel Tashjian, and Salamishah Tillet. The English edition is published by Aperture, with a French edition by Atelier EXB, each with its own cover. Mitchell’s lens has always made room for warmth and possibility. The work moves between portraits, pastoral scenes, and staged moments that read like memories in progress. Across the pages, recurring themes gather force: self-determination, community, and the ordinary as a site of joy. Photography becomes a place to rehearse tomorrow while staying rooted in what came before.

Tyler Mitchell: New Horizons II, 2022. © Tyler Mitchell.

The book arrives alongside a traveling survey that maps this evolution in full. After debuting at C/O Berlin, the exhibition journeyed to Helsinki and Lausanne, and opens next at Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris. The Paris presentation runs from October 15, 2025 to January 25, 2026, with the galleries organized around three threads: Lives and liberties, Postcolonial pastoral, and Family and fraternity. Together they form a clear invitation to slow down and really look. If you are in New York, Mitchell will be signing copies at Dashwood Books on September 10 from 6 to 8 pm.

Wish This Was Real is available now via Aperture, the French edition will follow in tandem with the Paris presentation.