Portraits in Collaboration
MEL
Summer 2018
Photography Claudine Boeglin
Portraits in Collaboration is a visual conversation where one agrees to set to lights and the other to tame the lights. It’s a furtive exchange dipped in mutual respect. A series of images emerges, either through a shared edit or a freestyle composition.
Summer 2018. Mel was perched on a bike tethered in stillness to a line of other bikes in Chelsea. The golden lights of the late afternoon put fire on their hair. It sparked my eye. A month later, we met at PS1 MoMA to play along its powdered lights and cinematography. Through the lens, Mel is many. In a tiny lapse of time, they could change posture and anima. In their own words as mailed July 7, 2018:
"I'm a 24 year old server at a dominican restaurant. I also work for a few different delivery apps; Doordash, Caviar, Ubereats, and Instacart. I occasionally walk dogs, house sit for people away on vacation, dye hair, make jewlery and customize clothing. I'm passionate about traveling, exploring new places, and listening to live music. I spend a lot of time going to as many music festivals (I work at gov ball, made in america and the meadows festival as well) and concerts as I can. Huge art enthusiast, I love spending my free time at galleries or local art expos and painting. Recently I realized how much I miss acting. I took classes at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting while I was still in highschool but never continued to pursue acting. I'm hoping to get back into that. My parents are both from the Dominican republic and I was born and raised in the Bronx."
