Since his remarkable debut in the worlds of art and fashion—notably with his iconic covers for Vogue magazine and his images exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Superfine: Tailoring Black Style—Tyler Mitchell has created a powerful visual oeuvre, combining visual beauty, utopia and American landscapes, which redefines the codes of representation of Blackness in the twenty-first century. An emerging and now essential figure in contemporary photography, Mitchell blurs the boundaries between commissioned work and personal artistic expression, using the world of fashion as a platform for disseminating a visual imagination.

His photographs are imbued with dreams of paradise and transcendence, set against the backdrop of history. Wish This Was Real showcases Mitchell's entire body of work since his early days, from his unclassifiable portraits taken in the United States, Europe and West Africa to his photographs printed on diaphanous fabrics and his sculptures that refer to the history of the Black community.
Presenting new reflections on Tyler Mitchell's work, this book illustrates how photography can be rooted in a collective past while evoking imagined futures. Through numerous contributions from writers, journalists, fashion professionals, artists and art historians, the book presents new reflections on the photographer's work.

“I hope this book is a way of reflecting on my growth over the past decade and how I’ve moved through and across different spaces, staying true to the ideas and images that matter most to me,” Mitchell says.