Every person has their own story to tell and each one is unique. I think one of the most difficult tasks when photographing people is to make a stranger interesting to the audience. With my personality I try and present people in ways that let them tell their story. I want the audience to look at one of my portraits and immediately have the desire to know more about that person and his or her world. Whether it’s the environment they inhabit or simply a certain something in their posture and expression, my subjects hopefully elicit that response through my photography. Everyone, I think, has something worth capturing if you are willing to slow down long enough to really see it.

Nicholas Mele