“That’s the beauty of photography – it really speaks to the public in a very direct way,” Tyler Mitchell tells the Observer. “There’s this immediate conversation with representation that I find very interesting.” On the phone from New York City, Mitchell speaks with warm and down-to-earth energy about “Wish This Was Real” at C/O Berlin and his work over the past decade. His confidence and thoughtful manner come across as that of a much older person (Mitchell is only 29).

It feels like this is Tyler Mitchell’s summer. Two solo exhibitions on either side of the Atlantic – this one in Berlin and “Tyler Mitchell: Idyllic Space” at High in Atlanta – as well as a prominent position in “Fragile Beauty” at the V&A in London and recent purchases of his work by MoMA in New York and the National Portrait Gallery in London have given him the personal and professional experiences of a photographer who could easily be decades older, while remaining true to his signature storytelling aesthetic.

In Wish This Was Real and elsewhere, Mitchell has expanded the scope of black representation in photography and video: hypnotic and seductive scenes featuring black models that simultaneously challenge the viewer to go beyond the surface of what they see. The video, On the hunt for pink. Red found is a prime example of Mitchell’s work – voiceovers of black youth and their suffering cannot be ignored despite their stillness and grace in moving images. Beauty and pain exist simultaneously.

This has been Mitchell’s trademark for a decade. “In many ways, I made this conscious decision to double down on a lot of the original concepts of my work… I decided to go back to the same ideas,” he explains. “The work has never strayed from being about black portraiture and black reputation, but it’s almost always been examined from multiple perspectives: historical and researched.” He then adds, “Perhaps the research changes and the tone, the tenor and some of the environments and the storytelling evolve over time.”

The show at C/O Berlin consists of three main sections: “Lives/Liberties,” which includes the eponymous, compelling video that gives the exhibition its name (it was Mitchell’s project for an experimental film class, in which four young, attractive black men walk past each other as models, using plastic water pistols on each other while one of them struggles to breathe); “Postcolonial/Pastoral,” which depicts black lives past and present against the backdrop of the landscapes of Atlanta and upstate New York; and “Family/Brotherhood,” which explores black family homes as sacred spaces.

Altars/Acres is another central part of Wish This Was Real. Mitchell pays tribute to black artists before him who were instrumental in his development as a creative. This area feels religious, respectful, and like a private sanctuary, thanking artists such as Grace Wales Bonner, Gordon Parks, Rashid Johnson, and Carrie Mae Weems.

After spending some time in Mitchell’s spaces, it seems impossible not to be touched by what he has created within the gallery walls.

When asked what feelings he wants visitors to leave with, Mitchell replies, “Whether people who are black or non-black enjoy something or take something away from it, I think that gives me great joy. But I’m interested in challenging the viewers’ ideas and assumptions, the baggage that they bring with them, so to speak, when they look at photographic work, and making my work in a way that challenges those ideas and assumptions but also plays with them.”

He still has decades to go and wants to continue contributing to the art world, evolving in other directions while remaining true to his community. In the C/O Berlin show, he experimented with newer media, with his own prints on draped silk, cotton and jersey presented on a wooden frame, as well as images on mirrored surfaces. So what’s next for Mitchell?

“I think what I hope to do over the next decade is continue to develop my voice as a filmmaker, as an artist who is interested in making objects out of different materials, but always staying rooted in photography. And then I’m not sure where things might take me, but I also want to continue to be a shepherd of other talents – a friend and mentor to other people whose visions I really enjoy.”