El Paquete was created out of a month spent photographing aspects of Cuba. The book depicts scenes of architecture and the newly emerging skate scene in Havana, Cuba. It was created in the summer of 2015 when Mitchell lived in Havana on exchange with the Ludwig Foundation, a documentary photography program in the city.

El Paquete is Tyler Mitchell’s first self-published effort. The title, meaning ‘The Package’ in English shares the name of an underground digital newspaper spreading and growing popular in Cuba. With very little internet access, certain individuals formed El Paquete as a weekly terabyte worth of content from films to humorous images to news articles on world events. Although technically illegal and not government-supported, El Paquete spreads throughout the island via flash drive and hard drive transfer until every subscriber receives their weekly “internet”. This book serves as a timepiece and permanent “Paquete” in its own right by capturing an island that is off the grid more than most. Mitchell sees this book as his own form of ‘package’ by seeking to commemorate a moment of rapid change and importance for the Afro-Cuban island.