Melanie

Melanie

Ontario, Canada

flickr deviantart

frames, people, places

I had the pleasure of asking Melanie some further questions:

do you always carry a camera with you?

unfortunately, i don't. i use an old canon-ae, which is very heavy. i've thought about getting a smaller camera to carry with me at all times, but i just don't know if it's worth the sacrifice.

your strangest experience in connection to a photograph?

every photo has some kind of story, but i do have some favourites. in terms of strangest, this is the strangest experience i have committed to film: [link] once in rochester, new york, i went to see a band called the buzzo all-stars. i had been hearing about buzzo for years. many dirty songs had been written about him; he was a legend. i finally saw him for myself: a large man with huge hair, wearing a multicoloured bathrobe with black tights and flipflops, singing his own dirty song to the tune of "wild thing", feeling up a woman singing a marvin gaye song and playing two trumpets simultaneously. needless to say, the strangest.

do you go to shoot or do you shoot as you go?

i usually just shoot as i go or occasionally i will go out with a specific purpose, but i don't ever go out looking for photo opportunities. usually when i have my camera with me, it's because i think there will be something worth documenting.

in your gallery, there are almost no portraits. is this on purpose?

i do have some portraits, but i tend to keep them to myself. the ones i do have are not really classic portraits, more like spontaneous captures. some of my favourite photos are of my students but i don't feel comfortable posting those.

what do you search for in a picture or art work?

in terms of others' work, i usually like simple, imperfect colour film photography.

who is the first person you show your work to?

i send a lot of my doubles to my best girl birdbrawl, which i've done have for years. she probably has hundreds of my photos her possession. either i want to show her something that is familiar or show her things in the place i'm living, since we haven't lived in the same city for a long time.

her galleries are like a mosaic, be sure to take a look at her flickr and deviantart.