Weiner Melanie (United States)

Melanie Weiner was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit and later graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1992 with a BFA majoring in advertising photography. In 1992 Melanie moved to New York City to pursue a career in Editorial photography.

Her first assignments were from a magazine called Alternative Press, a Cleveland-based magazine. The opportunities that Alternative Press afforded her at a very young age were extensive exposure to some of the most prominent music celebrities of the time, such as: Iggy Pop, Marilyn Manson, Soundgarden and Lou Reed, to name a few. Eventually this exposure transitioned her assignments to other publications such as Spin, Rolling Stone, Musician/ Billboard, and also assigned work for the major record labels.

At a time when photographers relied on highly gimmicky colorful techniques, Melanie strayed from the norm and instead became known for her classical Black and White imagery and confrontational style of portraiture. One of her most well -known pictorials at the time was her cover story  for Request/ Sam Goody publications, “A day in the life of Metallica. “ The Black and white images of Metallica were a far cry from how they were typically portrayed. They showedinsteada much lighter side of the personalities of the band, while shot in a very classical black and white format. These images were also later used by the San Francisco Examiner Sunday edition as a cover story and as well as for Rolling Stone.

In 1998 Melanie was selected to photograph the Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reunion. Years later these images are still praised for their spontaneity of expressions conveyed by the rock legends, especially commended by Robert Plant and Rolling Stone’s first photographer Baron Wolman. Also in 1998, Melanie decided to make the transition from music to mainstream publication showcasing a more gritty realism with her subjects, an extension to her personal style. Her first story to gain national attention was her compelling images of the adolescents in the Detroit school system, in which she was the only photographer to gain this unprecedented access. This project opened up many opportunities to expand her client list to publications such as: Time, Newsweek, US News andWorld Report, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Mirabella, and many other publications.

In 2000 Melanie was assigned a highly coveted cover story for Newsweek documenting the lives of families affected by Autism in America in a project called “Understanding Autism”. This story was published throughout Asia and the Middle East and Melanie still receives requests for the use of these images. In 2001, Melanie received the highest honors from Time Magazine on her cover story on Mohawk Indian children; she received recognition in the Time Almanac for some of the best images and story of 2001. This story was later published as a book edition by McGraw Hill and is still circulating 17 years later.

Although no longer living in New York, Melanie’s career has been celebrated by her indelible mark made on her many magazine cover stories and her contributions to the music industry and the publishing world. Melanie has photographed many personalities over the years from the very famous to the most   infamous. She continues on with her personal projects photographing in her compelling environmental style.

Melanie’s gift to her craft is seeing a certain beauty to the visions we overlook in our everyday life. She provides a unique and playful type of juxtaposition with her subjects in their natural environment and believes that everyone has a story to tell, and that any room can be fine-tuned to her singular type of environment.

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