Founded in 1997, Paris Photo has grown into the world’s largest international photography fair – showcasing works from leading galleries and publishers. For 2020, it had planned to expand overseas – launching the inaugural New York edition. Now available to view online, this year’s catalogue charts the history of the medium. Iconic 20th century works – including Edward Weston’s enthralling still lifes and Dorothea Lange’s piercing documentary – sit next to contemporary images by the likes of Paul Sepuya and Sally Mann. There are 1,200 photographs to view, making for inspiring viewing during days spent at home.

Featured above, alongside an image by Japanese artist Yoshinori Mizutani, is a portrait by Tyler Mitchell (b. 1995). At just 23 years of age, he became the first black photographer to shoot a cover for influential fashion magazine US Vogue. Mitchell’s works use natural light and bright colours to explores experiences of youth. Models lie back, embrace each other and look straight at the camera. “I aim to visualise what a Black utopia looks like or could look like,” he explains. “Growing up with Tumblr, I would often come across images of sensual, young, attractive white models running around being free and having so much fun—the kind of stuff Larry Clark and Ryan McGinley would make. I seldom saw that freedom for Black people in images—or at least in the photography I knew. My work responds to this lack. I feel an urgency to visualise Black people as free, expressive, effortless, and sensitive.”

Paris Photo New York’s Online Viewing Room is open 24-30 April. Find out more here.

Lead image: Tyler Mitchell, Twins II, 2016, Archival pigment print, 40 x 50 inches. APERTURE FOUNDATION.
1. Tyler Mitchell, Untitled (Topanga II), 2017, Archival pigment print, 20 x 24 inches. APERTURE FOUNDATION.
2. Yoshinori Mizutani, Tokyo Parrots 057, 2013, Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle. Fine Art Baryta paper, 80 x 53.3 cm. CHRISTOPHE GUYE.