Mellon Tytell

Mellon Tytell is an American photographer with a diverse career that includes fashion, documentary series, erotic photography, and portraits of celebrated personalities.
Mellon, along with her husband, the writer John Tytell, was integral in documenting and canonizing the members of the Beat Generation. They live with their dog Frank in Greenwich Village and Vermont.

Tytell graduated from Great Neck North Senior High school, and also attended Le Grand Verger in Lausanne, Switzerland. She attended NYU and received her B.A. in the Humanities from The New School . A job as stylist for the photographer Tosh Matsumoto was Tytell's first introduction to world of photography, and it was Matsumoto's own suggestion that prompted Tytell to start out on her own, and attend the Germain School of Photography.

Tytell's first job in photography came in 1972 when Ralph Lauren (at that time only a necktie designer) chose her to photograph his first collection. She has continued to work in fashion for clients such as, Givenchy, Christian Dior, and W Magazine in Paris.

Her editorial work has been published in over sixty countries during her tenure at Gamma-Liaison in New York, and Sipa Press in Paris. "National Geographic, Time, Life, People, Stern, Geo, Fortune, Playboy, Photo, and other magazines have printed her name next to stunning, evocative, and provocative portraits of the famous and the familiar, the downtrodden and the destitute."

Some of her extended documentary series consists of a major body of work on Haiti, made over several years on numerous trips, whose subjects include studies on opium in the Golden Triangle; the Rainbow family gathering in the piney woods of East Texas; life on the Ile Saint Louis in Paris; the bulls and wild horses of the Cammargue region in France; the psychic pilgrimage of a group of young Americans to sacred Inca sites in the Andes; and the Afro-Caribs in Suriname.

Her photographs have been exhibited extensively in Europe including the Villa de Medici in Rome, the Munich Stadtmuseum in Germany, Amerikahaus Berlin, Mannheim Kunstvairen, Gallerie Agathe Gaillard in Paris, as well as the I.C.P, and Neikrug Phtotographia in New York City.

Her work is collected by the International Center of Photography, in New York, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and various private collections.

In 1999, Mellon collaborated with her husband John Tytell, on the book Paradise Outlaws, a study of the Beat Generation and its lineage, in which Mellon contributed photographs, and John wrote the text. A photograph Mellon's, portraying Allen Ginsberg, was published in 2006 by Mark McMurray's Caliban Press in the book Ginsberg's Farm.

From 1978 to 1982, over the course of fourteen trips, on assignment from America's, Museum, Der Stern, Time, and American and French Geo magazines, Tytell took thousands of photographs, focusing on the interplay between Haitian painters and their environment. Her work on the subject has been exhibited by the Villa de Medici in Rome, the French Institute in Athens, Greece, and the Mannheim Kunstvairen in Germany.

Selden Rodman, the Haitian art critic, noted Tytell's unique eye after an editor at Der Stern showed him a selection of Tytell's portfolio, and in a personal letter, expressed his appreciation for her work:

"No one else has captured the essence of Haiti so unerringly...I'm more than ever impressed by the magical way in which you can find equivilant [sic] scenes in 'real life' to illuminate the paintings of such great artists as Rigaud Benoit, Philome Obin, Castera Bazile, Andre Pierre, St. Louis Blaise, Georges Liautaud and Jasmin Joseph. To use a word that should only be used with extreme caution, all these artists have a measure of "genius" and to catch that these artists catch intuitively with the camera's eye, takes as much genius."

An introduction to members of the Beat Generation for Tytell came through her husband, John, whose book Naked Angels was the first major study of the literary phenomenon and its authors. Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Herbert Huncke, and John Clellon Holmes, have all been subjects of Tytell, documenting the later years of the writers and their continuing relevance to American culture. Some of her portraits of the Beats are collected in the National Gallery of Art in Washingtpn, D.C., the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris and the International Center of Photography, New York City.

In 2008, Tytell's book My Lucky Dog, a study of her dog Hunter in both pictures and text, was published by Harper Collins. Tytell also designed the book, with 45 photographs and text, that was recently called "the smallest ever coffee table book" The book received glowing praise from both publications and noted photographers. William Wegman said of the book: "Lucky to be sure, for no dog has been more lovingly photographed or written about than Mellon Tytell's."

The photographer and filmmaker, Robert Frank has said of Mellon's work: "Mellon looks at the world with large generous eyes. Her work is passionate, warm and funny. She's a romantic with a good rap."

Organization of American States, Washington DC: First Prize Color, and Second Prize Black and White.

Philadelphia Art Director's Club: Silver Medal for Fashion Photography.

• The Beat Book Contributed photographs. (Mulch Press, 1974)
• Ecstasy Contributed photographic narrative. (Playboy Press, 1976)
• The Houdini of Photography Article on photographer Weegee (Camera Arts Magazine, 1981)
• Scopophilia, edited by Gerard Malanga Illustrated interview. (Alfred Van Der Marck, 1986)
• Paradise Outlaws John and Mellon Tytell (William Morrow, 1999)
• Rolling Stone Book of the Beats Edited by Holly George-Warren. Contributed essay on Robert Frank, and selection of photographs. (Hyperion, 1999)
• Ginsberg's Farm by Mark McMurray. Contributed photograph. (Caliban Press, 2006)
• Punk 365 Edited by Holly George-Warren. Contributed photograph. (Abrams, 2007)
• My Lucky Dog (HarperCollins, 2008)