Meet Huck 79’s artist-in-residence

A ver­sion of this sto­ry appears in Issue 79 of Huck. Get your copy now, or sub­scribe to make sure you nev­er miss anoth­er issue.

Raised in Syra­cuse, NY, but firm­ly based in New York City, Mel D. Cole is a self-taught, award-win­ning pho­tog­ra­ph­er. He spe­cialis­es in music, sports, nightlife, trav­el, street doc­u­men­tary, brand, and most recent­ly, pho­to­jour­nal­ism. He has doc­u­ment­ed some of America’s most volatile protests, march­es and riots, and posi­tioned him­self right in the thick of things on Jan­u­ary 6^th, cap­tur­ing the raw emo­tion as the infa­mous events unfold­ed. With a career span­ning more than two decades, he’s renowned as one of the world’s most accom­plished and cel­e­brat­ed pho­tog­ra­phers. Mel is Huck 79’s artist-in-residence.

How did you get into pho­tog­ra­phy and which pho­tog­ra­phers influ­enced you when you were starting?

I got into pho­tog­ra­phy via music, specif­i­cal­ly hip-hop. I would also say that my grand­moth­er influ­enced me, some­thing I did not ful­ly realise until her recent death. What I have learned over the years is it’s per­fect­ly okay NOT to have gained influ­ence from those who do the same as you. Influ­ences come from all over and it is up to you to decide how to process them.

Do you have dif­fer­ent per­son­al­i­ties for when you’re shoot­ing dif­fer­ent things. i.e. does a dif­fer­ent Mel mind­set turn up to shoot celebri­ties, com­pared to protests?

Good ques­tion, I have nev­er been asked this before. The answer is yes — when shoot­ing celebs dur­ing a pho­to shoot I get to show a side of me that exudes con­fi­dence but at the same time I have to allow the sub­ject to fill the space with their ego and not so much of my own. When pho­tograph­ing protests, my agen­da is to blend in, keep my head on a swiv­el and cap­ture things as they hap­pen vs mak­ing them happen.

How much did need­ing to doc­u­ment Jan­u­ary 6^th as an artist fight with the nat­ur­al urge to just get out of there? How did you deal with the adrenalin?

I nev­er thought that I need­ed to doc­u­ment it because I didn’t know it was going to hap­pen. But once it did hap­pen and I was in the mid­dle of it all, I nev­er real­ly thought about leav­ing until it got dark and then I start­ed to wor­ry more than I was wor­ry­ing before.

You see a lot of polar­is­ing points of view when you’re shoot­ing on the street — what gives you hope?

What gives me hope is that we are not all evil and even those who we think are evil can heal and help the world through their stories.

How do you melt into the back­ground in a volatile sit­u­a­tion? Peo­ple don’t like hav­ing their pic­ture tak­en when they’re hyped up…

Just be. That’s the only way to explain it.

Can you tell us about your foot­ball projects (in the UK sense of the word) how did an Amer­i­can pho­tog­ra­ph­er get into shoot­ing soccer/​football?

I got into SOC­CER by falling in love with play­ing FIFA on PlaySta­tion. From there I start­ed Char­coal Pitch F.C. — the first and only Black-owned soc­cer spe­cif­ic pho­to and video agency in the world that spe­cialis­es in mul­ti­cul­tur­al sto­ry­telling first. As of today I count The Pre­mier League, Man City, Chelsea, NY Red Bulls, MLS and Pep­si as some of my clients. Right now I am work­ing on post-pro­duc­tion of the S3 E1 of Chelsea The Bridge. This is an online show my agency pro­duces where we tell the sto­ries of Amer­i­can Chelsea supporters.

What cam­era could you nev­er do without?

iPhone.

What oth­er art forms do you, or would you, like to explore? What is it about them that intrigues you?

I would love to make a few films one day, paint more and have my own radio show where I can play the music that I love. What intrigues me about mak­ing films, paint­ing and doing radio is that they are all expres­sions of who and what I want to be known for once it’s all over for me.

When did you know pho­tog­ra­phy was going to be your life?

When peo­ple would tell me that I was pret­ty good at it. It built con­fi­dence with­in me. I don’t like to quit things and I love a chal­lenge. It comes from sports. I played foot­ball, aka Amer­i­can foot­ball, when I was a young­ster.

We want our Artist-in-Res­i­dence to expand our read­ers’ minds…so here’s a com­pre­hen­sive list of cul­tur­al things that have inspired Mel over his career and that he rec­om­mends you check out:

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