Meet Erik Melvin | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Erik Melvin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Erik, why did you pursue a creative career?
I’m a theater-kid at heart. I loved performing. I loved creating. I always thought I would either be a ‘famous’ actor or a travel agent. That’s how my brain still works – one minute, I want to the be the center of attention, the next I want to make things with my hands and then, one minute later, I’d rather be organizing receipts. Since I was about 7, I was playing piano and always in a play or musical. I started college, realized I didn’t necessarily want to deal with the anxiety of auditioning anymore, but also didn’t love the competition in classical music. So I made it the top floor of the performing arts building and tried my hand at “studio art.” Here we are – kind of a mix of everything: still performing, creating, set-designing, organizing receipts.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
“How did you overcome the challenges?” HA! I’m still overcoming challenges every day: will I ever work again? Will I get paid on time? Will the shoot go well? Did they like me? It’s funny to me how little my work resembles my inspiration or aspirations as a photographer. I had (have) this dream of being a fashion photographer à la Richard Avedon or Tim Walker. I still do. But, most of my work is event-related or behind-the-scenes and very quick. I like working intimately with people, with the same people over and over again. I think there are too many nerves and a lack of trust involved in the first time working with someone. While I was living in NYC, I worked for an online site shooting all sorts of things, every day. We would cover beauty, food, interiors, style, career interviews, etc. This is where I learned to be quick (and scrappy), which is how I kind of landed in the behind-the-scenes or second-shooter world of photography. I feel more comfortable without the big studio team, but I’m trying to overcome that fear of performing in front of too many people. It’s funny that a theater-kid has a hard time performing now.

As far as the lessons I’ve learned, even before photography: be on time, don’t be the cause of anyone’s stress, trust is everything, be kind, be present and have fun where and when you can. A lot of photographers can be aggressive. That’s just not me and I’ve realized how important that is with many of the people I work with.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh… I love to do a WeHo night out. Bar hop, dance. I really miss Flaming Saddles so much.

Sunset Tower is a great place for a delicious martini and fries. It’s so expensive, but I like people-watching and to feel rich for an evening.

Craig’s! There’s always someone to see. The paparazzi outside makes me feel like I’m 17 again, flipping through USWeekly in Ohio.

An estate sale is always fun, mostly to just see how other people lived. These homes out of here feel so iconic and sometimes bizarre, like little sets. I remember a Beverly Hills mansion with the ugliest, plastic-white kitchen ever, but the dining room was covered in this red, ornate silk wallpaper. Or this other sale where the bathroom was completely carpeted and the toiletries in the cabinet were straight out of the 70s. It truly felt like a movie set. …I think it’s also funny to watch how aggressive buyers become like Supermarket Sweep.

I’ve walked around Larchmont Village / Windsor Square a few times. I love a coffee and stroll with friends or family visiting. It’s fun to judge everyone’s mansions as if we also own our own… “god, that brick is miserable. I’d definitely move that orange tree.”

I also like to show people how close the beach is, so a Venice stroll or lunch at Malibu Farm. I know it’s all very touristy, but again, growing up in Ohio, it’s just insane to me that people lived their entire lives in a beautiful place like this.

For early-morning friends visiting, we’ve also gone to watch sunrise surfers in Malibu… followed by McDonald’s breakfast, of course.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to my boyfriend and friends whom I met in NYC… I didn’t realize it at the time, but that core network is still endlessly supporting me. These were all people I met while trying to figure myself out. It seemed like everyone was just starting and had little money, so it was a good time to form a solid network. I had a manager at The Container Store in NYC who would repeat corporate life-coach expressions to us, but one of them made sense years later when I was working in an office. It was something like, “Always carry your past experiences into your new ones. You never know what you’ll need in your bag.” (Something like that.) I realized as I moved through NYC how much my experience as a waiter mattered. You learn how to deal with very different groups of people very quickly… I’m still doing that, day-to-day. I’m really good at reading people quickly to try and make them as comfortable as possible. Also, huge shoutout to my single-mom from Ohio. She never questioned any of my weird decisions and always supported me: your-kid-can-be-a-Disney-Star auditions at the Holiday Inn, abruptly choosing to Au Pair in Paris for a year, driving me to NYC twice, once to intern and then to live in the worst apartment ever without a real plan…

Website: https://www.erikmelvin.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/erik.melvin

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-melvin/

Image Credits
Roly Diaz