Melissa O’Shaughnessy
‘It’s a long road to understanding both what makes a photograph good, and what makes it meaningful.’
Very proud to feature an interview with Melissa O’Shaughnessy, a street photographer based in New York City.
I discovered the work of Melissa through her book, ‘Perfect Strangers: New York City Street Photographs’, and I was really impressed by how she manages to capture the city through people and the way she use colours to make striking composition.
For Travelling Light Club, she is sharing her photographic journey, what inspires her and the favourite photos in her portfolio.
Melissa O’Shaughnessy © All Rights Reserved.
Vincent Dupont-Blackshaw: How did you get into photography?
Melissa O’Shaughnessy: Like most people, my photographic beginnings were typical and rather unremarkable, at the very start with a little Kodak Instamatic camera given to me for Christmas when I was 9 or 10 years old. When I married and had children I was the one who commandeered the camera (realizing on our honeymoon that my husband would never make photography his career).
It wasn’t until many years later, when my older children were teenagers, that I began to explore photography beyond the casual family or vacation snapshot. The confluence of having recently quit a very demanding job and my son asking to build a black and white darkroom in our basement, spurred me to take a few evening photography classes at a nearby university. Before long the darkroom became my refuge, but it was nearly a decade before I switched to color, and to street photography.
Melissa O’Shaughnessy © All Rights Reserved.
V.D.B.: In a world where everyone is taking pictures all the time, do you remember the first time you felt like a photographer?
M.O.S.: Probably when I had made a few photographs that I was proud of, though I look back on those now and resolve to keep them in a box gathering dust in the basement. I think, for most of us, the willingness to call yourself a “photographer” is a gradual process. For me, as photography began to take up more and more of my headspace (and bookshelf space), I became more comfortable referring to myself as such.
V.D.B.: Is there a photographer whose work you particularly appreciate?
M.O.S.: There are far too many to list here. A very early influence was Harry Callahan, who remains a favorite of mine to this day. Joel Meyerowitz ignited my interest in street photography at a workshop over ten years ago, and both his work and his mentorship have been hugely important to me. Other key photographic influences include Sergio Larrain (a true poet with the camera), Mary Ellen Mark, Helen Levitt, Diane Arbus, Mark Cohen, Garry Winogrand, Robert Frank, Harry Gruyaert…the list goes on, and on.
Melissa O’Shaughnessy © All Rights Reserved.
Joel Meyerowitz © All Rights Reserved.
V.D.B.: Is there a photo of this particular photographer that you wish you had taken yourself?
M.O.S.: Without a doubt this one by Joel Meyerowitz. It is pure genius: the central event is of course the fallen man and the worker with a hammer stepping over him, but look closely and you see that the sight lines of every spectator converges on them. Even all those white cars (a bugaboo of many a street photographer) don’t spoil the composition. Photographic perfection in a 250th of a second.
V.D.B.: How do you define your work?
M.O.S.: For lack of a better term I call myself a street photographer. My work is candid, unposed and unplanned, and I try to impose some sort of order on the urban chaos. I like to think that my photographs have a strong current of humanism running through them.
V.D.B.: What equipment do you use?
M.O.S.: I use several cameras, all small and digital. I minimally process my photographs in Lightroom.
V.D.B.: What are your three favourite photos in your portfolio?
V.D.B.: What do you want viewers to take away from your work?
M.O.S.: My affection for, and interest in, the people and places I photograph.
V.D.B.: What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?
M.O.S.: The importance of communicating emotion and delight, and doing it in a way that is both personal and universal. But I don’t know that you can know this as a beginner unless you’re some sort of prodigy; it’s a long road to understanding both what makes a photograph good, and what makes it meaningful.
Melissa O’Shaughnessy © All Rights Reserved.
V.D.B.: Are you a frequent traveller?
M.O.S.: I used to travel a fair amount, but the pandemic and a number of family commitments have kept me closer to home for the past few years.
V.D.B.: Does travel play a role in your photographic practice?
M.O.S.: I’m dying to get on the road again soon, but for me, to create a body of work in a new place will take time, and more than a visit or two. I’d love to do some extended trips to India and the far east, and I’ve always wanted to take the proverbial road trip across America.
V.D.B.: What is your favourite place in the world?
M.O.S.: When my children were growing up we took them to Italy many times. The people, the art, the history, the landscape, and the food are all a feast in that beautiful country. I’ll never tire of it.
Melissa O’Shaughnessy © All Rights Reserved.
V.D.B.: What are you working on at the moment? What is your next project?
M.O.S.: I’m still tramping around New York City for the most part. I’m focusing my work on several distinct neighborhoods, since travels further afield are difficult for me at the moment. Whether this will gel into a fully formed project or another book remains to be seen. But it really doesn’t matter, it’s the process itself that has its hooks in me.
V.D.B.: Where can we see your work? Where can we follow you?
M.O.S.: You can find more of my work at melissaoshaughnessy.com, and follow me on Instagram @melissaoshaughnessy. You can also see a recent online exhibition of my work at the Municipal Art Society of New York City here.