Subverting the Ordinary

Mel Karch

Subverting the Ordinary
Born in Germany, and now living between Paris and New York, Mel Karch’s life is as exciting as her work. Having worked for clients such as the New York Times and Marie Claire, she is no stranger to fashion photography. However, her images are more than just editorial; they tell stories with underlying narratives rooted in the cinematic landscapes of her shoots. Having started out in 1999 in the Cote d’ Ivoire, Karch moved to Paris in 2002 where she assisted photographers such as Annie Leibovitz and Mark Seliger. In 2004, she won the FUJI Young Fashion Photographers Prize. Her most recent exhibition, Moments, comprised 78 colour and black and white Polaroids taken while on location scouting for Marie Claire. Karch’s skill lies in her distinct ability to reframe remnants of 20^th century Americana, favouring locations that are modern and pre-digital: swimming pools of modern Los Angeles houses, 1970s motel rooms, rusting steel structures, ramshackle houses with peeling paint, and lonely highways. A monograph will be available at Clic Gallery in NYC. For further information visit:

www.clicgallery.com and www.melkarch.com. The following images are an extract from Road Trip.

Date published: 1 June 2012