"In the midst of a moment of freedom, you’re forced to face yourself.’ A Glint of Possibility, Tyler Mitchell, 2022

"The American south is a verdant place, full of beautiful and seductive environments, but it’s also threatening, when you think about its racial and political history. Atlanta, where I was born and raised, is one of the greenest cities in the US, basically a city in a forest. I am an only child and had a lot of free time to meditate in these lush spaces. Raised in the suburbs, I went to school in a predominantly white area, which forced me to think about my own Blackness and my relationship to the world around me.

I’ve been making photographs since I was a teenager, primarily oriented around young Black life. My shots are theatrical, staged images, often exploring the psychological relationship young, Black, creative people have with outdoor spaces, specifically in the south.

For this shot, which I called A Glint of Possibility, I thought about a boy on a tyre swing and all the connotations that has, like freeform and “hang time”. The artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa talks about this in a very different sense. There’s an image that appears in a lot of his exhibitions: I believe it’s a member of the band Bad Brains jumping into the crowd. He has these theories about how Black people hang and jump through space in style, in a beautiful way. So I thought about a boy hanging off a tyre swing, a symbol of fun, leisure, relaxation, all that good stuff. But he’s almost looking at his reflection in the lake in a potentially scary way. Like when you see yourself in a mirror and you’re startled – in a moment of freedom, you’re forced to face yourself.

I chose the title because a glint refers to a refraction of light, a refraction of oneself, and then there’s possibility – all of the moments before and after this moment. A possibility in a boy’s life, to set oneself free, to fly, or to hang there freely – all of those things come to mind with this picture. (...)"

Tyler Mitchell

Above: Treading, 2022

“I kept coming back to the power of water. As Black folks, we constantly have this relationship to water that can be spiritually beautiful and restorative while also carrying the connotations of struggle in how we passed through the transatlantic slave trade. I was struck by the beauty of swimming through mud. It’s a struggle and eerie, but it also has so much radiance and beauty. I’m interested in these allusions of freedom and transcendence.”
Tyler Mitchell

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