Tyler Shields
Tyler Shields was born on 29 April 1982 in Jacksonville, Florida. Before he was a photographer, he was a professional vert inline skater, competing in the X Games in 1999 and 2000 and touring with Tony Hawk in 2003 — a career built on the same willingness to take physical risk that would later define his photography. He moved to Los Angeles at eighteen to pursue art, and was championed early by Fraser Kee Scott of A Gallery, who helped bring his work to a wider audience. Shields' breakthrough came through the internet rather than the traditional gallery system: staged, provocative images — a bloodied Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton posed with raw meat — spread rapidly online in the early social-media era and established, almost overnight, the confrontational visual language he has worked in ever since. Today he lives and works in Los Angeles, continuing to shoot, direct and publish at the same pace and with the same appetite for controversy that built his reputation.
Signature Style
Shields works almost exclusively in large, staged, cinematic tableaux built around risk, glamour and destruction. Fire, live animals, extreme stunts and genuine physical danger are recurring devices — not for shock alone, but because the risk itself is visibly present in the final image, giving his photographs a tension that a purely staged studio shot cannot fake. His technical process is deliberately old-fashioned for someone whose reputation was built on the internet: he shoots on a large-format 8x10 camera and uses silver gelatin and dye transfer printing, processes that produce the vivid, saturated colour and extreme resolution characteristic of his large-scale prints. That combination — an image built for instant online virality, produced through some of photography's slowest and most demanding analogue techniques — is one of the more distinctive tensions in his work. He has photographed a long list of actors and public figures, including Emma Roberts, Aaron Paul, Zachary Quinto, Demi Lovato, Juno Temple, Shiloh Fernandez, Lydia Hearst, and Bruce Willis, and has produced campaign work for brands including Nike, Adidas, Playboy and Harley-Davidson. Shields also directs — his photographic eye for staged tension carries over into short film and video work, and he has described his practice as sitting deliberately across mediums rather than confined to still photography alone. Unlike photographers who build a career around a single recognisable subject — a landscape, a species, a place — Shields' consistency comes from tone and method rather than setting: almost any subject, treated with enough risk and enough glamour, becomes recognisably his.
Themes
Consumerism, power, glamour and destruction sit at the centre of Shields' practice, frequently staged together in a single frame — a designer handbag on fire, a luxury object placed somewhere it was never meant to be. His work treats glamour and violence as close relatives rather than opposites, using the visual grammar of fashion photography to stage scenes that undercut it. The result is a body of work that provokes a reaction and rarely leaves anyone neutral, which is, by his own account, the point.
Materials and Editions
Every Shields photograph offered through Petra Gut Contemporary is produced in a strictly limited edition — in many cases as few as three prints per available size — reflecting how the market for his work has developed: unusually small runs paired with strong, sustained collector demand. His prints are large-format by design, made to be shown at scale, with printing processes (silver gelatin, dye transfer) chosen specifically for their colour depth and resolution at that size. Shields has published two books of his photography, The Dirty Side of Glamour (2013) and Provocateur (2017), both surveying the same territory his gallery-available prints occupy. Because so few prints of each image exist, condition, framing and provenance carry more weight in his market than they would for a more widely editioned photographer — a consideration Petra Gut Contemporary's team factors into every sale and every piece of collecting advice it gives.
Collecting Tyler Shields
Shields has a genuine, well-documented secondary market: his work appears regularly at auction through Sotheby's and Phillips, and is tracked by major market-data platforms including Artnet, MutualArt and Heritage Auctions, with results including roughly $30,717 for "Mouthful" at Sotheby's New York in 2019. That combination of small editions and an active resale market is central to how collectors approach his work — provenance, edition number and print size all affect value, and Petra Gut Contemporary's team is available to advise on all three. For collectors drawn to bold, provocative contemporary photography, Shields' work sits naturally alongside other artists represented by Petra Gut Contemporary, including the wildlife and cinematic photography of David Yarrow and the fashion-driven conceptual work of Pietro Terzini.
Tyler Shields in Switzerland
Petra Gut Contemporary represents Tyler Shields in Switzerland, presenting his work across its galleries in Zürich and St. Moritz, including a dedicated Provocateur online exhibition. The gallery's team is available to advise on his available editions, framing and display, and to arrange viewings or acquisitions at either location or remotely for international clients.
Available Works
The available works below are drawn directly from current gallery stock and update as pieces are acquired or new editions are released. Each listing includes edition details, size and, on request, current pricing and shipping information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Tyler Shields?
Tyler Shields is an American photographer, writer and director, born in 1982 in Jacksonville, Florida, known for bold, provocative, cinematically staged photography exploring glamour, power, consumerism and destruction. A former professional inline skater, he moved to Los Angeles at eighteen to pursue art and now lives and works there.
What is Tyler Shields known for?
Shields is known for large-scale, staged photographs that combine glamour with risk and destruction — often involving fire, extreme stunts or live animals — shot on a large-format 8x10 camera and printed using silver gelatin and dye transfer processes.
Are Tyler Shields' photographs limited editions?
Yes. Shields' gallery-available prints are released in strictly limited editions, in many cases as few as three prints per available size.
Where can I buy Tyler Shields photography in Switzerland?
Petra Gut Contemporary, with galleries in Zürich and St. Moritz, represents Tyler Shields in Switzerland and offers original limited edition prints for sale, along with expert advice on collecting his work.
What techniques does Tyler Shields use?
Shields shoots on a large-format 8x10 camera and uses silver gelatin and dye transfer printing, producing high-resolution prints with vivid, saturated colour, typically shown at large scale.
Has Tyler Shields' work been sold at major auction houses?
Yes. His work has sold through Sotheby's and Phillips and is tracked by market-data platforms including Artnet, MutualArt and Heritage Auctions.
Is Petra Gut Contemporary an authorised gallery?
Yes. Petra Gut Contemporary represents Tyler Shields in Switzerland, presenting his work across its Zürich and St. Moritz galleries, including a dedicated Provocateur online exhibition.
Which Tyler Shields works are currently available?
Available editions change regularly as pieces are acquired by collectors. The current selection is shown in the collection below; contact Petra Gut Contemporary for the latest availability and pricing.