Originally from Washington D.C. and now based in New York, photographer Tyra Mitchell tells us she’s always been know to be that girl that always had a camera in hand: “I went to an arts high school in DC called the Duke Ellington School of the Arts which literally paved the way for me. I was studying visual arts which was mostly fine arts (painting, sculpture, drawing), but within the program, there was a photography course. This is where it all really began for me because I never thought about taking photography seriously. I was always just shooting as a hobby! I thought that I would end up a painter or something honestly. But when I started seriously studying photography, I knew that this was actually what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and make a living off of it.”
On the subject of woc in the art world and representation, Tyra states “Physically, melanin is so beautiful to me. But I believe that we as brown girls have something that many others don’t have, but want. This is obvious if you just look around in arts and culture (specifically fashion). We have culture! We have mental strength. We can do anything. And for those that don’t believe this, THAT’S WHAT I’M HERE FOR! I really want to inspire people.”
Last month, Ms. Mitchell curated an art show in NY with the title #GIRLARTISTTAKEOVER. The whole purpose behind it was to spotlight young girl artists of color: “I want to show everyone, yes we did this and YES we will continue to do this because we can. I want to inspire younger generations and show them, look.. you can make a living and change lives with your art. And if you’re not an artists, I want to inspire you to feel that you can do whatever you want as long as you work super hard towards it. It’s super easy to give up but you can’t! We only have this lifetime to go after what we really want. You cannot let anything get in the way of that! Within my work, I am just having fun. Art shouldn’t be taken so seriously anyway.”
For more of Tyra’s work, check out her website, instagram, and tumblr
