Matt Eich and Tyler Mitchell: Sunlight, Shadow, and a Rainbow

Can photography, usually rooted in reality, help us imagine paradise?

Americans Matt Eich (b. 1986) and Tyler Mitchell (b. 1995) share an interest in belonging, transformation, and the American South. Eich was born, raised, and lives in Virginia. Mitchell, who resides in New York City, was born and raised around Atlanta and returned there to shoot his recent work.

Mitchell first became renowned for his fashion photography. He recently extended his practice of working with models and staging scenes into fine art photography, creating dreamlike vignettes of leisure and play set in the American South. It is, however, a South reimagined: a lush landscape of rustic innocence and simple pleasures that offers Black people refuge, repose, and rootedness. Eich initially gained recognition as a photojournalist. His more recent work provides intimate glimpses of the daily lives of family and friends. Whether candid or posed, these shots use lighting, color, and point of view to transform mundane occurrences into magical moments. They evoke sensations and emotions—the wonder of a child discovering nature or a dip into a chilly river on a hot afternoon. Eich and Mitchell set joyful scenes of  relaxation, languor, and personal contentment into the Southern landscape. Both artists use photography, most often associated with recording fact, to suggest the possibilities of transformation, a delight in the senses, and the engaging mystery of the transitory.