Photo credit: Tyler Mitchell
After Beyoncé was given full creative control over Vogue’s coveted September issue, she reached back and opened the door for a young Black creative to make his mark on the magazine’s biggest issue of the year. As first reported last week, the singer hired 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell to shoot her cover. Mitchell is now the first ever Black photographer to shoot a Vogue cover in the publication’s 126-year-old history.
“When I first started, 21 years ago, I was told that it was hard for me to get onto covers of magazines because Black people did not sell,” Beyonce told Vogue. “Clearly that has been proven a myth. Not only is an African American on the cover of the most important month for Vogue, this is the first-ever Vogue cover shot by an African American photographer.”
Mitchell pictured in a self-portrait in 2015
She added: “It’s important to me that I help open doors for younger artists. There are so many cultural and societal barriers to entry that I like to do what I can to level the playing field, to present a different point of view for people who may feel like their voices don’t matter.
Imagine if someone hadn’t given a chance to the brilliant women who came before me: Josephine Baker, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, and the list goes on. They opened the doors for me, and I pray that I’m doing all I can to open doors for the next generation of talents.”
Photo credit: Tyler Mitchell
She also discussed with writer Clover Hope her pregnancy, body acceptance, and opened up about her ancestry, disclosing: “I come from a slave owner who fell in love with and married a slave. I had to process that revelation over time,” she wrote.
“I questioned what it meant and tried to put it into perspective. I now believe it’s why God blessed me with my twins. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time. I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives.”
Read Beyoncé’s full Vogue cover story here.