Carlos Nazario and Tyler Mitchell On Why They Chose Texas to Celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary

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2:58I love that. This shoot is called Coming Home, which is funny because neither of you are from Texas. But all of the people featured in the shoot are really representative of Texas Today, which I thought was so thrilling. There's also a video that I'm very excited for you both to see that's going live on YouTube. I saw it. Oh, good. We saw it. It was emotional. Very emotional. It is, right? It's incredible. We love the video. I mean, usually every time SESPI, our director of video, sends me something, I'm like, it's so long, it's so long. in this, I was like, it's so beautiful. I know. It was, I mean, it follows the journey.

3:36And I mean, I hate to be dramatic, but it was really a journey. I mean, it was a multi-day shoot. It was three days, however. Which is rare these days. Which is rare. Three and a travel day. Three and a travel day. Five days in Texas. Five days in Texas. Many, many months preparing. Many meetings. Lots of brainstorming. Lots of conversations. Lots of arguments. Tyler and I were both on fire those few months. And even prior to that— I think we cared a lot. We cared a lot. Yeah. We cared a lot. And I think we knew that this had the potential to be very important to, you know, most of all the people who we were making it with, but certainly the people who would see it if we did it right.

4:21So, yeah, we took it seriously. Where did the idea come from? And did it start in Texas? And or if not, how did it get to Texas? It didn't start in Texas. I think Carlos and I love going to places and connecting to people, period. The first response was really when you and I met, and it was, you know, you were starting to percolate about an idea around America's 250th anniversary, so to speak, I would say. And, you know, my first thought was it's a complicated time in our history. And so without being naive to that reality, how do we address people's real lives? How do we still make something that feels like a breath of fresh air in the midst of what can feel like an endless doom scroll?

4:59when one thinks about America. And as a photographer, like, who works in Europe a lot, you know, you go to Europe, and the funniest thing is, like, now you say you live in New York or you live in America, and it's like, are you okay? They're really worried. They're like, oh, it's just so terrible. And it's like, sure, I understand that reaction fully, but, like, there's real life happening here. There's real things that are continuing on in spite of this administration, which can feel so oppressive. I think there's a lot of things that are actually happening on the ground in our day-to-day lives that are beautiful.

5:28And I think there was this decision to make the story about that. My joke is we've both never been to Texas. There's actually something really beautiful in that. We wanted to discover something. I think Tyler and I have been working together now for, we just reminded ourselves, over 10 years. I think we've done some of our best work together, if I may say so. And I think of that work, the best work has been when we have gone somewhere and discovered something. either about a place or, you know, a person who was introducing that place to us or about ourselves. I think we've both grown up on these sets.

6:07This was no exception. I think we learned a lot about each other and a lot about ourselves and a lot about how to make work under, you know, less than ideal circumstances, right? But the point was, like, we wanted to go somewhere without any preconceived notions. We didn't know the story we wanted to tell. My other joke is like in the response to Vogue's call to what would you do for America's 250th, I said we want to go straight to the border. Yeah. We want to go to the edge of the country. We want to go to basically the absolute borderland and see what would happen. Well, that was a really moving part of the shoot.

6:45It was incredible. Because you guys photographed in Big Bend National Park. And right as we were circling in on doing Big Bend, there was all of the news about building a border wall right through the middle of this beautiful national park. And so then to bring Ruth and her family down there felt really powerful. And that just sort of one foot over or across the stream that, you know, was a very shallow part of the river would make all the difference. Your phone actually changes time zones down there. Like we were, it was weird because it would either be noon or 1 p.m. wherever we were standing down there.

7:26So it was very emotional. I mean, we stumbled upon a rally, I guess. Yeah, a full-on protest on a Saturday against the wall being built in the community. We didn't know the political sway of the area. We thought maybe it was actually pro the administration. We just didn't know. But what we saw was everyone banding together and being against the wall and being against the administration, which was interesting. And it was really, like, powerful. Can you tell the story of how you were on your way to Big Bend and part of Ruth's family decided maybe they weren't going to go? Yeah, I don't know the full story other than what I heard.

8:02Like, I wish I, like, was there or knew a bit more. But we knew that we had found this amazing model, Ruth Dang. We knew we found someone who's had very compelling personality and features and history also. And we were very drawn to her. So we found her first. And then oftentimes it's kind of how we cast. We're like, well, do they have a cousin? Do they have sisters? Do they have family members? Who are the friends? Yeah. Who are the organic connections that will make an interesting picture? And she had six sisters. And then her parents who came to Dallas, immigrated, fled the conflict in Sudan, basically.

8:37They're part of the Lost Boys and Girls generation. When we heard that, I mean, thinking about immigration here in this country and just the very dangerous discourse that has happened, that is coming out of the administration around immigration. We thought this is great. We thought this is not only beautiful, this not only speaks to us as artists, but it speaks to us as people. And I think going down there, I mean, basically, dad turned around. That's what I know. While we're on our way. We were driving from Midland to Big Bend. It was a big journey. There was very little sleep. And the production vehicles, a few of them had gone ahead, and they said, hey, guys, just to let you know, there are a number of checks and stops.

9:18You know, border control and ICE are stopping and checking people. I think that when you think of that region of the world, of America, you're primarily thinking about immigrants from Mexico or Latin South America. You're not really thinking about the rest of the world. Yeah. So they were just sort of giving us a courtesy call to say, hey, if anyone is not legal, doesn't have papers, feels nervous, just to let you know this is what's happening. And I think they were thinking more about perhaps some of the production assistants. You know, we had local hair and makeup assistants who were Latino and Latina.

9:56But everyone was like, no, we're all, you know, citizens. It's all good. But I think once word got back to Ruth and her family, they just didn't feel comfortable. I think they just didn't want to have that type of exchange, even if everything would have gone fine. I think they just didn't want to have that conflict. So dad decided to turn back, which was really unfortunate and I think added a layer of relevance to what we were doing and the pictures that we were wanting to make there, actually. But you also get down there and you also are in the river and you're thinking, borders are so arbitrary.

10:36You're looking right there at the border, which is split by the river, the Rio Grande, and you're like, this is so silly. Like who's decided that like now my toe is in Mexico and now my toe is in America. Exactly. Something that we talked about a lot in the office was as we really thought about this whole issue being about American narratives and celebrating America. What does that mean in 2026, in this era of presidential hubris? What do we want to be celebrating? And I wonder if, especially going to the South, going to Texas, did either of you have any hesitation about focusing on that because of the current political climate concerns?

11:16No, absolutely not. The interesting thing is I have always said that I would never go to Texas. I don't know why. I just always felt like Texas represented a lot of things that inherently I am opposed to. I'm from New York. You know, I have the privilege of having been raised in an environment that was totally supportive and free of, you know, certain prejudices or certain realities that I think perhaps you growing up in the South. Yeah, I was raised around those things. You know, we're prevalent. So I always said, you know, in the few times that I have gone to the South, not Miami, I've always been sort of displeased.

11:56You know, I mean, you've taken me to Atlanta and I've had an amazing time there. But outside of that, I don't really have an interest, to be honest. And so I wasn't stoked, no, but I thought it was important. And I think Tyler felt. I'm always the opposite. I'm like, we have to go. We have to look at the South. We have to understand the dynamics of this country. One cannot avert their eyes from the South. And what I mean by that is like the dynamics, the people, the way of life, the way people address one another, all of that in the South is really representative of the dynamics of our country.

12:30And I think to think to have the luxury to live in other parts of the country and think that that's a very thing that's separate from our reality is actually a position of privilege that isn't really taking in the whole picture. I also think it's interesting to think about, as people are always asking, how the magazine making process happens and how editorials come to be. And it is fun to map those steps. And I remember Tyler and I met for coffee in December. It was freezing. And I said, we're so excited about this summer issue that's really celebrating different facets of America. And the first thing you said was, I've always been fascinated by white picket fences.

13:07And I want to do a shoot about white picket fences. And me and Raul and Virginia were like, oh, my God, that's amazing. They were really stoked about these white picket fences. I was like, let's go. Yeah, I still am. And then it turned into what if it was models from their home states and what that looks like as a patchwork across the U.S. And then it became a logistical nightmare to go with six different women to six different states. And then you guys, I feel like you both came in for a meeting with me, Raul, Virginia, and you brought, you said, I have this book for Tyler that I borrowed a long time ago.

13:43And it was Bruce Weber's Detroit book. And to me, that feels like it was a grounding moment of maybe we do need to find one place we really want to be focusing on. And then you guys sort of came to Texas on your own. Would you say that it was the three models who brought you to Texas? No. We had a little bit of a standoff. We did. We were in different places, different time zones, and trying to catch up with each other for like an entire weekend. But we gave ourselves a deadline. And we said by Monday, we need to decide. And I think we were deciding between Puerto Rico. We talked about Tyler's home state of Georgia.

14:22And we talked about my home city of Queens. And we just sort of, in the way that we do, we went back and forth. we debated. Tyler is an incredible debater. And he comes with all his sets of facts and his research and his images and I just sort of yell and whine. Is that what I do? You sound like my two children. One who's very logic-based and negotiating and the other who's just yelling. 100%. I'm like, I don't want to go there. But he sold me on the fact that perhaps the 3D places we were considering were incorrect and we needed to start from the drawing board and actually what convinced us that Texas was the place was your request or your suggestion, which was great, for us to focus on a national park.

15:11Yeah. Tyler then did some great research on beautiful national parks, and we both, when we were looking through the research, looked at Big Bend at the same time, and we were like, this is it. We need to shoot there. Yeah, the national park shout was amazing. I was like, oh, that's actually incredible. Yeah, I mean, there's nothing more powerful than bringing attention to places we care about that are under threat. So it really was an exciting opportunity, and what a privilege to be able to do that. And you guys did it so beautifully. But this is our Texas opener. It looks really beautiful. It looks really beautifully printed.

15:46I gasped in your video when you said that you had 70 people you were shooting, but actually 370 because of Ocean of Soul. How do you even wrap your head around photographing that many people? I mean, first of all, let's start with how many of those are you bringing clothes for? A lot. Yeah. I mean, we dressed a lot of people. Logistically, it was, I mean, complicated is being generous. But we've— How many trunks? 30? Wow. Not a lot. Yeah. You know, in the grander scheme of things, like, I've done a lot worse. We've done a lot worse. But it was about 30 trunks of clothes. We were very mindful of the fact that we were going to be in a constant state of motion.

16:32It wasn't as though we were going to one place and shooting there for five days. We had countless locations. We had countless base camps. We had, even within the cities that we're in, we had, you know, up to 10 locations per day. So being limber was very important. You know, I really gave myself a boundary of, okay, 30 trunks is going to be the maximum. And it was helpful also because I like an option. So if given carte blanche, I would have probably had 100 trunks. But the first day, we were set up in— We were in TSU, Texas Southern. Okay. In the gym. The gym. So huge, which was amazing. So we had all this room to really spread out.

17:16And that's where you shot Ocean of Soul. Yeah, on the football field outside the gymnasium. The first shot of the entire shoot. You've never shot a marching band before, right? Never, never, no. What's the biggest challenge there? None, because they're actually really collaborative. I know what the challenge was. For me, the challenge was how are we going to pick a picture or a setup? And I think that's always in your mind when you're photographing a story such as this, where we could have filled 100 pages. Right. You know, I mean, Ocean of Soul alone, we were with them for a couple of hours and we kept saying this could be a whole book.

17:50Yeah. I mean, every person is so characterful and so talented. Yeah. So photogenic. It's like, don't overshoot because this edit is going to be brutal. And I mean, it was brutal. It was brutal. I mean, I have to say some of my favorite photos from all of them were of this Askaramuza team of these sort of all-female rodeo in these beautiful pink embellished outfits and their hats. Some of them, it's from quite a distance away when they're riding. Where were you when you were shooting that? Up in a tree somewhere. Literally in a tree. Really? Literally. In a ladder, basically hiding in a tree. Wow.

18:26While they're shooting. You can literally see in some of the images the tree branches. Yeah, he was a bird. Yeah, right there. Yeah, we liked the bird's eye view on them and just them in the grass. The bird's eye view is so gorgeous. So amazing. That was a moment, I think, where both of us looked at each other and we thought, how lucky are we? Like that we get to do this for a living or even, I mean, we would do it for free. But the fact that we get to discover these incredible people and they so generously give themselves and their talents and their energy and their stories to us, we felt really, in that moment, I think we felt really privileged.

19:04That was a great day. Yeah, I loved them too. They were like refreshingly modern, I guess, girls. They were like talking about their horses and the history of their husbands, gifting them their horses. Just really like had these really jubilant personalities. but obviously the outfits are so like generationally tied to the ancestry and traditional. So you're like, and you're just cracking jokes at them. They're gesturing. They're wanting to play certain songs on set. Like it's really, really fun too. Cause you're like, you know how people are going to be when you shoot them. I mean, you look at these pictures and I mean, a lot of the people, I think, for example, like the cowboys or I was corrected numerous times, you know, cow folk.

19:47Also, some of them were ox. Some were bull riders. Some were bull riders. Some were bull farmers, bull sellers. Bull sellers. Five, fifth generation. Bull riders. Some were rope. Some doing lasso. Lasso. There were some actual just cow, cowboys and girls, cow folk. Trail riders. Trail riders, exactly. There was a lot. So it was a whole plethora of people who worked in this field and play in this field. But I think sometimes in the pictures they can come across as quite serious. And then you're with them and you're just like playing Bun B and like talking shit. They were the best. Oh, that's so fun.

20:27And I think a lot of these people hadn't been notified prior to what they were doing, which I think speaks to also the generosity of them. They were like, okay, we'll just show up. Well, we were at the club with the cow folk. Let's hear about that. I mean, basically we had a night out. Basically the shoot just turned into like just having a night because you're like, okay, we're done. Like, just put the camera down. Was that with the line dancers? No. It was after the line dancing. Yes, it was after the line dancing. But it was with Dennis. Aaron Wasson. Dennis Asake. Asake. It's the people that we sort of like picked up along this journey of the day.

21:03You're like a tumbleweed. You just gathered people throughout the day. Okay. And the funny thing about this is all of these people were so down to have this crazy like fun night out. Tyler and I, teetotallers, I think we ordered tea. For sure, we ordered mocktails. And they were like, y 'all don't want a beer. And we're both like, no, we'll just sip our water. The way my body is feeling right now, no. Yeah. But we, I mean, it was really cool, though, watching them. Watching the different groups who we had photographed separately sort of mix and mingle was really interesting. And I think we got a taste of Houston nightlife.

21:40It's incredible. It's like, it's truly weird and eccentric. Like, you're like, you see eccentrics, you see the kids mixing, you see, like, then you're in this kind of honky-tonk line dancing place, and they're like, let's go to a club in downtown. Like, that was, it was, it was like, at that point, I was like, I'm leaving my camera. I was like, we're just having a night out now, and that's what it is. Carlos, I want to know about the challenges of styling a shoot like this, which you're dressing a lot of people who are not necessarily sample size. You also, we did this entire issue was American designers.

22:11So you really, you dug deep for all to get so many different looks. What was the hardest part about envisioning what the fashion story would be? I think that when you are working for Vogue, normally very early on in the process of conceiving a story, you have to decide what the fashion angle is. and that typically needs to be able to be described in a word or a sentence. I actually find that exercise to be extremely helpful. I didn't work that way prior to arriving at Vogue all those years back. However, now it's something that I find essential just to help frame what we're doing. when you are dressing people everywhere from the age of literally four to 94, you're dressing people in different scenarios at a barbecue, at a rodeo, at a quinceañera, out at night, working in the morning.

23:14There's so many different ways in which you can approach it. And so there was no one thing. When we were discussing with the fashion team, what we were pulling, It was literally everything from T-shirts and jeans and denim shorts to evening gowns and cowboy hats to flip-flops and swimming trunks to tuxedos. And I really found that challenge to be super fun. I think Tyler and I, first and foremost, we consider ourselves storytellers. You know, Tyler started in film. It's one of my secret dreams to be a costume designer. And so when we were thinking about all of these scenarios as film scenes, we thought, okay, what would this person be wearing?

23:59Also, we felt that if we were doing this well, it would feel like we were documenting these people in what could have been their everyday life. Certainly a heightened sense of that. We wanted it to be stylized and we wanted them to look like the best version of themselves. Yeah. Although I know that is very cliche. We still wanted them to feel like themselves. You know, for example, when we were dressing Dennis and Asake, who are extremely stylish, which, by the way, Southern people are, right? This sort of culture of presenting yourself to the world in an elegant way. It's very prevalent in Texas.

24:35I mean, all of these people even showed up to set sometimes better than I could have ever dressed them. And I said, Tyler, let's just shoot them like this. That did happen. And it did happen where I thought, well, there's no way I'm going to. Remember the stylish? Yeah, there were people who showed up just like to accompany other people. And we thought, oh, my God, you're so beautiful and well-dressed and let's photograph you. So I think the biggest challenge there is just the broad array of things that you need.

25:25You guys mentioned that you've done a lot of different projects together that you've loved. Who introduced you guys? Our mutual friend, Ronald Burton. Because actually, Tyler was interning at my agency. Just to show you how meteoric this rise was. Wow, so you were an intern at Our Partner before you became the star of Our Partner. Yes. Wow. Our mutual friend, who was like my very close friend at the time and was sort of like a mentor of Tyler's. It was just like a big brother kind of energy. He was like, you should meet this kid. He's so amazing. Like, his pictures are so great. How old were you at the time?

26:01When we met. 19 or 20. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like starting to heat up and, you know, thinking I was the shit. I was intimidated for sure because I was like, oh, this guy's the editor, the fashion editor of Fantastic Man magazine. I was like, oh my God, it's so serious. Like, I was so nervous. But he was so precocious and so sweet and like funny. And I instantly was like, this kid's amazing. But, you know, there was no like plans to work together immediately. We just were like hanging out. And then maybe meeting three, you were like, yeah, so I did this thing. And I was like, cool, tell me about it.