Melanie Pullen

Melanie Pullen – Born in NYC: She currently lives and works in Los Angeles

Melanie Pullen is a self-taught fine-art photographer raised in a family of photojournalists, publishers and artists. Her photography is heavily influenced by early forensic photography, war journalism, cinema and fashion. 

Pullen’s photographs employ the power of fashion, color, grit and grain to disguise, distract, and to draw the viewer’s attention away from the otherwise macabre subjects.

Her work focuses extensively on both social values and taboos while purposely taking aim at the media’s exploitation of sex, gender, and violence. Pullen herself has noted that she targets society’s obsessive glamorization by literally re-dressing what are deeply disturbing events, forcing the viewer to question their own values and observations. “I’m continuously creating imagery that questions our perceptions and our ingrained desire to glamorize violence.”

Nearly all of Pullen’s photo shoots resemble high-budget films, with massive teams of stylists, makeup artists and models: at times up-to one hundred people are on a shoot.

Her photography has been shown in major museums and galleries internationally: it is permanently in the holdings of many of the most prominent public and private collections around the world. Most recently the Getty Museum acquired several pieces from her High Fashion Crime Scenes which now reside in their permanent collection.

Melanie has published numerous books of her photography with notable fine-art publishers such as: Nazraeli Press and most recently in 2020 with Kodansha Press, in Japan.

Additionally, her work has been featured in hundreds of publications including: The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Esquire, ELLE Magazine, London’s Sunday Independent, Spin, W, Flaunt, 1814, and VanityFair, to name a few.

Melanie was awarded the D&AD Yellow Pencil Award.

She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.