Christopher Mitchell (b. 1978, New York; works in Miami) is a Haitian American photographer whose work explores memory, environment, place, and cultural experience across the Caribbean and its diaspora. Raised in South Florida, Mitchell lived in Haiti for 15 years, where he developed long-term documentary projects grounded in research, preservation, and community collaboration. Working primarily with analog film, he uses photography as a tool of cultural preservation, archiving resilience, ritual, and everyday life in places where histories are often threatened by erasure.
His practice frequently centers on Haitian traditions, most notably Kanaval Jacmel and Vodou ceremonies, as well as the shifting urban landscape of Little Haiti, where he lives and works. His extensive fieldwork in Haiti continues to inform two ongoing documentary films focused on Vodou ceremonies in Gonaïves and the cultural history of Jacmel Kanaval. Mitchell is a recipient of the Knight Foundation Art and Tech Expansion Fund, a Wavemaker Grant supported by Locust Projects and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and a Miami Individual Artist Grant. He is currently a resident artist at the Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami.
Recent exhibitions include Shattered Structures at FIU’s Miami Beach Urban Studios, marking the 15th anniversary of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake; Les Sirènes at MOCA North Miami; Daybreak at P71 Gallery; and a solo exhibition at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. His work spans photography, film, and community-based archives dedicated to preserving the cultural memory of Haiti and Miami.
Mapou: A Resting Place
These photographs were taken in Souvenance, Haiti, beneath the branches of sacred Mapou trees. For generations, the Mapou has served as a place of gathering, ceremony, memory, and refuge. It stands as a living witness to communal life and ancestral presence.The images linger in moments of stillness and collective rest, where bodies find shelter under its canopy and joy emerges through connection.In Souvenance, rest is not separate from spirituality or community; it is an act of care, renewal, and remembrance. These works invite viewers to consider the sacred possibilities of pause and the enduring comfort found in returning to the shade of the Mapou.
