The definitive early career survey of one of the most compelling photographers of his generation.

Tyler Mitchell's photography is animated by dreams of paradise and joy against the backdrop of history. Since his rise to prominence in the worlds of photography and fashion, Mitchell creates images of beauty, utopia, and the American landscape that expand the imaginary of Blackness in the twenty-first century. Wish This Was Real is the definitive early career survey of Mitchell's work, offering a comprehensive look into the subjects animating his artistic practice, from his color-drenched photography in Cuba and genre-bending portraits made in the United States and West Africa to his photographs printed on diaphanous fabrics and sculptures that reference Black intellectual history. By offering new perspectives on his long-standing themes of self-determination and the extraordinary radiance of the everyday, Wish This Was Real shows how portraiture can be rooted in a collective past while evoking imagined futures.