Hi! I’m Melanie and it’s nice to meet you!

Melanie Poland grew up in Burlington, New Jersey; she was a very active kid involved in many sports. She had a fascination with sports photography and taking photographs at practice or during games when she wasn’t playing, whether it was ice hockey, lacrosse, or even dancing. Finally, she took a real photography class her junior year of high school after sustaining an injury from playing hockey. Forfeiting her dreams of playing for the United States Women’s Ice Hockey Team, she fell in love with image making as it quickly became her new passion. Poland has recently graduated from the University of Hartford with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and a dual minor in graphic design and political science. Her dream is to become a political photojournalist because of her love of politics, visual documentary style, and technical joy with the medium has given her a vision which now drives her practice.