Last January, photographer and frequent i-D collaborator Tyler Mitchell opened his exhibition I Can Make You Feel Good in New York. It was his first solo show in the US and added new work centring around Black identity, expanding on the showcase of the same name that opened at Amsterdam’s Foam museum the year before. “With this project I’m trying to explain these ideas that I’m working through which are very autobiographical and sometimes political,” he explained to us at the time. “Dealing with racial and gender identity, through dress in a museum space.”
Now, a debut monograph unifying the photography and film from these shows is available for purchase. Each of the 206 pages of I Can Make You Feel Good is drenched in Tyler’s signature glowing natural light and rich palette of colours. With no white space visible, the book’s design mirrors the photographer’s all-encompassing vision.
“I aim to visualise what a Black utopia looks like or could look like. People say utopia is never achievable but I love photography’s possibility of allowing me to dream and make that dream become very real,” reads the opening statement of the book.
The monograph features written contributions from Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries), Deborah Willis (Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University), Mirjam Kooiman (Curator, Foam), and Isolde Brielmaier (Curator-at-Large, ICP), who each examine the cultural prevalence of Tyler’s reimagining of the Black experience.
I Can Make You Feel Good is available now. Visit here for more information on where to get it.