Photographer Tyler Mitchell Receives the $250,000 Don Tyson Prize

Mitchell is the sixth recipient of the prize established by the Tyson family in 2016. This year, the grant amount was increased from $200,000 to $250,000, and the frequency was changed from biennial to annual. The prize is awarded to artists, individuals, and organizations that have made significant contributions to American art. The Don Tyson Prize was established in honor of Don Tyson, former chairman and chief executive officer of the food company Tyson Foods, headquartered in Arkansas.

Mitchell was born in Atlanta in 1995 and currently works in Brooklyn. He works in photography, film, publishing, fashion, and curating exhibitions, creating images that explore Black life through ideas of beauty, leisure, intimacy, community, and self-determination. His photographs are often inspired by the landscapes and domestic interiors of his childhood in suburban Georgia.

The public first became aware of Mitchell in 2018, when, at the age of 23, he became the first Black photographer to shoot an American Vogue cover. His subject was Beyoncé for the September issue. Mitchell's mentor, Deborah Willis, a previous recipient of the award (2022), characterized his work as reformatting "the perception of intimacy, style, and the human form."

Among the previous recipients of the Don Tyson Prize are Nicholas Galanin (2024), Project Row Houses (2020), and the Archives of American Art (2016).