Recalling his father’s life in New York City, Mike Mellia
playfully mixes photojournalism with conceptual photography in his photo series “Another Day in Paradise.”
“I like to make things strange,” says the fine-art shooter,
who’s no stranger himself to opposing yet complementary realms—his father was a music teacher and his
mother, a math teacher.
In this photo of fashion model Nicholas Ronyai,
Mellia’s mathematical side sees a predominant x-axis,
with Ronyai sitting comfortably on the ground in
the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, reading a
book “as if he’s in his living room,” Mellia says, and
a looming y-axis of the sprawling urban buildings
and passersby who seem oblivious to the sitter. The
photographer’s artistic side draws a contradictory
mood, between a gigantic, bustling metropolis
and a quiet, intimate moment.
Mellia, who shoots with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II, styled
Ronyai in dark pants and a white top; by total coincidence,
the three approaching women don similar outfits,
“like they’re all drones,” Mellia says. His approach is
photojournalistic, but his conceptual side may be
driven by fate.
Mike Mellia
BY LIBBY PETERSON
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M ; To see more of Mike Mellia’s work, visit his website:
www.mikemellia.com.
“I like to make things strange,”
says fine-art shooter Mike
Mellia, who’s no stranger
himself to opposing yet
complementary realms.
