Latest news with #GhostImage

New York Times

Wrestling With a Harrowing Legacy

Tyler Mitchell was only 23 in 2018, when his portrait of Beyoncé became the first Vogue cover by a Black photographer. Already established, he was suddenly a celebrity. But as was true for others before him, notably Richard Avedon, precocious success in fashion left him hungry for artistic recognition. To produce 'Ghost Images,' his first solo exhibition at Gagosian in New York (a previous Gagosian show was held in London in 2022), Mitchell traveled last year to two barrier islands in his native state of Georgia, including Jekyll Island, where enslaved people were transported by ship as late as 1858. Amid bucolic settings, he posed Black models in individual portraits and staged groups, aiming to evoke not only the beauty of the place but the disquieting past that lurks beneath it. His most powerful photographs are the least arty. A haunting image of a young man ensnared in a fisherman's net, with one eye prominently visible through the mesh, lives up to its title, 'Ghost Image.' It suggests the horror of entrapment at sea without relying on gimmickry to make the point. Tyler Mitchell, 'Ghost Image,' 2024, archival pigment print. The young man has been ensnared in a fishing net. Credit... Tyler Mitchell; via Gagosian; Photo by Owen Conway And while 'Lamine's Apparition (After Frederick Sommer)' manipulates the image, it does so adroitly. As the title indicates, Mitchell's picture reprises a technique employed by Frederick Sommer of printing two negatives on one sheet to unearthly effect. When Sommer composed a portrait of the artist Max Ernst in 1946, the bare-chested Ernst seemed to be transforming into part of a cement wall. Mitchell superimposed two negatives to create a spectral figure in 'Lamine's Apparition (After Frederick Sommer),' 2024. Credit... Tyler Mitchell; via Gagosian; Photo by Owen Conway Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.