Melanie Blanding
was born on September 11, 1983, in Roanoke Virginia.
How did you get interested in Photography?
When I was younger I attended local public schools in Virginia. Then, when I got to high school I was interested in writing and so I joined the newspaper staff my senior year and started taking pictures. From there they made me the staff photographer. The policy at the time was if all writers had to take your own pictures. My senior year in highschool was devoted to photography for the paper. I was then hired as a staff photographer for the basketball team.
Where did you attend College?
I graduated highschool in 2002 and started at Western Kentucky University in the Fall of 02 and then graduated in May 2006.
Western had a strong photojournalism. I interned with the army one summer. Started traveling to Africa my sophomore year.
What made you realize that photojournalism is what you wanted to pursue?
If I had to pinpoint it to the moment, that first assignment in high school made me realize how much fun photography could be. There’s this energy when I was down there on the field and to feel like I was part of a little bit of history. And that I was able to use photography in a way to be involved in things without being a participant. I didn’t have to devote my life to football, I could do things through photography. From there it developed into an outlet, just this curiosity with human life and the way people live. I’ve always been interested in cultural anthropology. To combine the two, to be witness to the mundane things, but to learn what people do why do people do the things they do? To be there, and to see how they are involved. I enjoy being around people. I enjoy documenting life. I’m really more interested in the more humanitarian sector and to use photography for advocacy.
How did you get involved in the Congo project?
The first time I went to the Congo I was part of a humanitarian group that was researching for a week in Congo. They were there to find ways that they can invest their organization in different communities. They asked me to be the photographer to be a part of the process. I had no clue, what was going on in Congo. When I learned about the experiences women had with gender based violence, I was completely shockied. I didn’t expect anything and I was shocked. Being a woman, and being pretty much the same age as them, it hit very close.
Think about how easy it is to be in the position of these women and the odds they are up against. I don’t have financial resources or living resources. I have a camera, and I have a way to communicate that these women don’t. If I can do anything, it’s to photograph.
How did you build rapport with your subjects?
One of the best things that happened, is that we were able to live inside the hospital compound in the guest house. The women live in the ward within 800 feet. It was a short walk down the sidewalk. The women had little to do in the daytime. Some wome waited for weeks and months to repair the physical damage. We sat around outside while they worked on projects like sewing and weaving. Like I said earlier, it was the mundane day to day things that I love to photograph.
We started in a non-invasive way. We introduced ourselves first and did a lot of talking with the women there. We explained how I wanted to help them as best I could. Living in such proximity made the most difference. They saw me on a day to day basis. Instead of somebody swooping in for a few days to document, we were the re for 8 or 10 weeks. We would sing play the drums.
I would say I’m a slow photographer. I like for people to be comfortable with me. I like long-term projects. I like projects that have meaning and impact. There are other photographers who are definitely better suited for those tight deadlines and time constraints. They work well with a crowd and more pressure. More intense situations. I’ve covered protest marches and demonstrations and things like that and that’s fine, but I feel like my strengths are doing work with women in Congo and having personal relationships and telling stories that have been well thought out.
One of my disappointments going the second time within the year there were very little information about the conflict in the us and about the impact that it was having specifically women within the eastern region and what I’ve realized with what little information I had was wrong or partial truth because people who were reporting had a limited time or grasp to comprehend the violence.
There’s a period of weeks when I was in Congo having nightmares and couldn’t get a lot of sleep thinking about the women. I was reading books that were very intense psychologically. I experienced most of the emotional impact. The hard thing about coming back to the United States is that it feels like Congo is a different world, not just a country or contintent. Your day to day life is completely different. The way you get water is different, basic survival is different. The life that you live everyday is not in a state of fear but in a state of concern. You have to be very concerned with your safety. I wasn’t terrified when I was in Congo, but we were aware.
The hardest thing about coming back from the Congo was trying to go back to a day to day life recognizing the violence was still happening to the women. I was coming to a safe warm welcoming environment where I didn’t have to worry about daily provisions. We have the capability to help them. But the biggest difficulty is figuring out how do we weave our lives in America with the life I had in Congo. How do I continue the work that I started there. How do I continue moving forward with my profession here without forgetting the women and the job I did in congo. That I hope to continue.