Last year, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art invited a young photographer to shoot his highly anticipated fashion exhibition in spring 2025, the museum got something that probably did not expect: countermeasure.
It may be because the invitation was not only extended to any young photographer, but to Tyler Mitchell, who in 2018 became the first black photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue. (He was 23 years old and His subject was Beyonce.) Although he said he would like to photograph objects from the exhibition – cultural and sartorial exploration of black dandies – for the planned catalog, Mr. Mitchell returned to the costume institute with his own playground: instead of immortalizing clothing in static shots, he also showed them because they were introduced throughout history.
“The fact that for the first time we are talking about history.” Black Men’s clothing, it is an embodied conversation and most of it live through a photo, ”Mitchell said in a recent telephone conversation. “So it was urgent to go beyond the documentation simply the object and go into a real human lifestyle.”
To a 30 -page photo of spread and accompanying essay in catalog for a metropolitan exhibition, called “Superfine: Adaptation of black style,” Mr. Mitchell continues his research, examines ideas for dandyism and examines his current interpretation. Photos have models wearing clothing from the exhibition, except for self -written Dandies as DumpingDandy Wellington and Michael Henry AdamsMany wear their own Finaria.
The photo essay presents several generations of blacks. In one picture, the young boy wear a two -piece set of dark blue crushed velvet velvets, cropped with singing shells and crystals, designer Grace Wales Bonner. Another shows a table of men in a formal dress that also happens to do a range of dramatic heads. Mr. Mitchell said he wanted the photographs to be between young and old, emphasizing the way different generations appear in different environments.
“I saw it quite immediately,” said Mr. Mitchell. “When I heard a topic, ideas came.” I wanted to do something so badly that could really support the show and also a celebration of the current moment. ”
Simply, the word “dandy” is often used to describe someone, usually a man who is deeply devoted to his own style. The costume show, which opens on May 10, was partially inspired by “slaves to fashion: black dandyism and the style of black diasporic identity” Monica L. Miller, professor of Africana studies at Barnard College.
In the book, Professor Miller, who is also a guest curator of the exhibition, looks in detail at the black Dandy as a character that emerged from Europe of the 18th century, where black servants were created to dress and basically turn them into commodities. In the end, black people gained Dandy’s identity and turned the negative associations as a defiant show of power.
Mr. Mitchell, conducted by Professor Miller’s research, worked with the curatorial staff of the museum and a small team of frequent collaborators. He said he drew inspiration from the “kaleidoscope” of artists: Isaac Julien, Toni Morrison, Greg Tate, James van der zee And other characters from Harlem Renaissance.
“It was a real creative exercise because we also went beyond the clothing that was on the show,” he said. “And so it has become such a kind of creative expression and essay, beyond mere documenting appearance.”
In his accompanying essay called “Portrait of Modern Dandy”, Mr. Mitchell remembered the amazing astonishment of a white friend after Atlanta’s visit and saw black people dressing in situations that did not necessarily require increased clothing. Mr. Mitchell, who grew up in Marietta, Ga., The Suburbs of Atlanta, was surprised to hear it: In his experience, black people in the south have always dressed.
“If you just went to the mall, it was more than enough opportunities to show up and show up and dressed according to your own rules and your own agenda,” he said.
He also carries memories of his mother and his wider community, which has high expectations of presenting respect, whether in church, school or elsewhere. (Dressing consciously was historically a way to avoid blacks negatively.)
This duty “felt overwhelming as an anxious child,” Mr. Mitchell remembered, but eventually found a way to freely express his personal style, sometimes within these parameters – a gap of species, which he called the very essence of Dandyism.
“I didn’t know that the word grew up, but I identified with it so young, because in the south there is a special emphasis on respect,” he said. “I think dandyism emerges from a discourse around respect and wants to suppress these ideas very deliberately and funny them back to your own.”
According to Met, the exhibition is also to emphasize the current Renaissance for a man in which various designers, stylists and wearers risk and expand the traditional definitions of masculine clothing. Mr. Mitchell calls this evolution “beautifully anarchic moment”, especially for black men.
This helps “open the possibility of expression,” he said, allowing younger men to avoid “some of the challenges I grew up, which is, what is the archetype that fits like a black man in Atlanta?”
“This is the shift I have noticed, and that’s what I think it means for black men today,” he added. “That they can grow up in a world where there are no binary files.”
