Curator Barb Peacock: "Hometown is where your early days of youth are spent and memories made.  In the case of ‘Girl’ she is literally playing in the dirt with a tiara and not a care in the world. The photographer captures her straight on for what appears to be one brief moment before the girl resumes her digging. Her story is bold; she is defiant and beautiful, willful and scrappy, strong and independent. The photographer has framed her a touch off center showing glimpses of her surroundings, apparently a farm.  The tiara is what moves this image to go beyond simple description. It tells the story of a complex strong willed girl full of contradictions. She looks like she will accomplish whatever she sets her mind on."

Melanie Metz says of her work, "These images are from a work-in-progress titled after my hometown, “Davie”. The series exploits my relationship with the place in which I spent my childhood.  I think I am investigating the glue that pulls folks together or in other words, what a culture represents.  I seek out clues to these questions within the unmediated movements of the people around me in their most comfortable settings."
 
Melanie Metz, a visual artist born in 1992, resides in the South. She is primarily a film-based photographer who makes her own c-prints out of a traditional darkroom. Melanie’s work has been featured in publications such as Juxtapoz, Broadly, Lenscratch, and many more. She considers herself to be a story-teller, in that each of her images present narratives surrounding themes of childhood, mysticism, and the natural cycle of life.
 
EDUCATION-

Bachelor of Arts, Florida International University, Miami, FL
Broward College, Associate of Arts, Davie, FL
 
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS-

2017 All-Media Juried Biennial, Juror: Kathrine Pill, Art & Culture Center, Hollywood, Fl

2016 The Enviornmental Portrait, Juror: Shana Nys Dambrot, Darkroom Gallery, Essex Jct., VT

2016 National Photo Contest: Connect, Juror: Angela Cejda, Woody Gaddis Gallery, Edmond, OK

2016 With Our Own Eyes, Jurors: Judy Walgren & Ann Jastrab, RayKo Photo Center, San Francisco, CA

2016 You Are Here, Galerie Schuster, Berlin, Germany

2016 Photo 16, Juror: Bruce Katsiff, Berkley Arts Council Gallery, Martinsburg, WV

2016 Annual Interest: No.4, YAA Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL

2016 Step Right Up, Juror: Tami Katz-Frieman, Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery, Broward, FL

WORK EXPERIENCE-

Broadly/ VICE Media, Editorial Photo Contributor

Dear Florida Moms, How Do I Trap a Man into Marrying Me?, November 2013

Rhinestones in the Suburbs: Photos of Florida’s Rodeo Girls, November 2015

How a Juggalo Commune Saved Christmas, December 2015

More Photos of Juggalos Saving Christmas, December 2015

Nice Day for a Weed Wedding: We Went to Colorado's First Cannabis Wedding Expo, January 2016

Planning Your Perfect Day While Stoned as Shit, January 2016

Dear Florida Moms: How Do I Tell if My Boyfriend Is Talking to His Ex?, June 2016

What It's Like Being the Momager of a Two-Year-Old Instagram Celeb, February 2016
 
Broward College, Photo Editor of P'an Ku, award-winning student literary/arts magazine

Bostick & Sullivan, Studio Assistant, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Summer 2016
Preparing chemicals for platinum and palladium and other photographic processes, assist in experiments for new alternative printing methods. 
 
RESIDENCIES 
Lacawac Artists' Residency, Pocono Mountains, PA, 2016
 
OTHER EDUCATION
Maine Media Workshop, Digital Filmmaking, Rockport, ME
California College of the Arts, Color Photography, Oakland, CA

studio@melanie-metz.com
www.melanie-metz.com