Tyler Shields’ Smoke (2023, Archival Pigment Print) captures the sharp allure and danger of seduction with an image that is as cinematic as it is provocative. The close-up composition isolates the mouth and nose of a figure, their lips painted a striking red, lightly parting to hold a burning cigarette. A faint wisp of smoke curls upward into the darkness, amplifying the tension between desire and destruction.

The saturated red against the black background heightens the photograph’s visual drama, while the glowing ember of the cigarette becomes a focal point, glowing with a fleeting intensity. The image operates on dualities—pleasure and decay, elegance and ruin, allure and danger—echoing Shields’ fascination with the fragility of beauty and the volatility of human impulse.

With Smoke, Shields elevates an everyday act into a timeless symbol of rebellion and intimacy. It is both glamorous and unsettling, a work that seduces the viewer even as it hints at its own impermanence.

Chromogenic print
18 x 18 inches