[1] His portraiture, lighting skill, and ability to capture dancers in what he termed "moving stills" made him one of the most important dance photographers of the 20th century.

He photographed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for three decades, producing a body of work that includes over ten thousand images.

[2] Other subjects included Leonard Bernstein, David Byrne, Truman Capote, Anthony Quinn, Jack Nicholson, Patti LuPone, Keith Haring, Neil Simon, Angela Lansbury, Twyla Tharp, Ned Rorem, Leontyne Price, Alfred Hitchcock, Spalding Gray, Ann Reinking, Andy Warhol, and Natalie Wood.

[6] In 2020 his 1983 photo of Audre Lorde was used by mosaicist Rico Gatson to create a permanent installation at the 167th Street Station in the Bronx.

[7][8] Arts Magazine credited him as the first photographer to treat entertainers as individuals with "character and identification not expressed exclusively through their works.

"[4] The Smithsonian, which holds The Jack Mitchell Photography of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Collection, including 8,288 black-and-white negatives, 2,106 color slides and transparencies, and 339 black-and-white prints,[5] called him "the benchmark and standard that other dance photographers measured their work".

[9] The New York Times, which published hundreds of his photographs, described him as "both a portraitist and a capturer of complex motion" and as a lighting expert.