Melanie Friend - Artist Talk

Join us for our December Artist Talk from renowned Photographer Melanie Friend.

Melanie worked as a photojournalist in the 1980s and 90s, reporting for The Guardian and BBC Radio. In 1986 she joined the women’s photography agency Format and documented anti-nuclear protests, including the peace camp at Greenham Common. 

In 1988, Melanie created Mothers’ Pride, a series on teenage mothers with interviews and portraits. This was later exhibited at Tate Britain as part of Women in Revolt (2023-24).

Fiona with Dominic from the Mother's Pride series 1988, © Melanie Field

During the 1990s Melanie focused on the hidden repression in Kosovo, using sound as well as images in her exhibition Homes and Gardens: Documenting the Invisible, which toured to international venues including the Hasselblad Center, Sweden. In 2001 her book No Place Like Home: Echoes from Kosovo (Midnight Editions, USA) documented the refugee crisis and the immediate aftermath of the Kosovo war. Her exhibition Border Country (Belfast Exposed, 2007) delved into the experiences of asylum seekers detained in the UK’s immigration removal centres.

Living History group area, Biggin Hill air show, Kent, 27 June 2009 from The Home Front © Melanie Friend

The Home Front (Impressions Gallery, 2013) focused on everyday militarisation and her images of the military landscape of Salisbury Plain were compiled into the book The Plain (Dewi Lewis, 2020).

Icy dawn, with red flag indicating firing nearby,Salisbury Plain, from The Plain © Melanie Friend

From 2003 to 2019 Melanie was Reader in Photography at the University of Sussex. 

In spring 2026, Melanie was one of 20 women photographers selected for The Vanguard exhibition at the Houston Center for Photography, USA.

She is currently working on a new landscape project, cycling the bridleways in Suffolk.

Melanie’s talk aims to touch on most of these projects, as well as showing unpublished photographs recently unearthed from cupboards.

Header Image - Midnight at Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, New Year's Eve 1989, woman waving at her son on scaffolding tower above © Melanie Friend