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MELISSA MERMIN
creative media maven
writer • shame slayer
general badass
I started my photography career out of grad school in Boston in the '90s as a product photographer for a design firm, but being confined to a studio bored me. I started freelancing for a local arts and music paper shooting live bands, which I loved but couldn't pay my rent on front row seats and image credits. Then I focused on high-end weddings and events shooting in a similar photojournalistic style. Over my 25+ year career, my work has appeared in wedding magazines, art books, received mainstream press and I was featured as one of the top twenty wedding photographers in the world in 2008.
The digital age gave way to an explosion of online visual talent and my career began to cool as I battled depression and personal struggles. Going into the darkness turned on the light of deep introspection and healing, I found workshops on love, intimacy and sexuality. After receiving my certification as a somatic sex educator I became a sexuality coach, bodyworker and I'm still and an ever-evolving creative badass. I re-discovered my passion as an artist and started photographing sensuality in the boudoir and learned the art of documentary filmmaking. Today I'm activist for LGBTQ, BIPOC sex worker rights and a public speaker at events and conferences . And wherever I go I still carry a camera and create stories. Revealing one's truth and being fully self-expressed without approval is an act of courage I try to take each day.
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More facts about Melissa
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Rides a bicycle almost every day
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Has 27 vintage cameras on display
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Devoted plant mom and obsessed gardener
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Dirt or paint habitually under fingernails
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Most creative between midnight and 3am
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Can do a spot-on Boston and New York accent
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Starting to accept her gray hair
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Dreams about being interviewed by Terry Gross about her memoir