Melissa Kaseman received her BFA in photography from the California College of the Arts in 2005.
Before settling in San Francisco she studied Contemporary Photography at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht, Netherlands. She has exhibited in San Francisco, Oakland, and Minot. She currently lives and works in San Francisco, California.
Melissa utilizes her photographs as a way to understand her life experience and create a sense of personal history.
Her work deals with issues of longing, loss, and dislocation; and aims to find the delicate balance between the intensity of loss and the beauty of the mundane.

From the age of eight I spent my life between places.
My home became divided, my memories fragmented, my recollections organized by season.
Photography has the capability to suspend moments of transition. I am interested in using this to visually describe the moments that are significant to my life experience, using the images as an emotional map. Making photographs has been a way for me to create a sense of personl history, and in my constant search of balance between the intensity of loss and the beauty in the mundane I find a quiet mediation in looking.

These photographs are from an ongoing body of work titled, "Another Season Slips (While She Lies Still)".
This project began when my mother was moved into a full time care facility due to the disabling effects of Mulitple Sclerosis. Landscape, interiors, still lifes, and portraits are used to describe themes concerning loss, longing, and isolation.

FJORD: How do you feel the Internet has affected the way you work?  Have you changed the style of work you do or the way you present your work based on the way the Internet has changed how photography functions?

MELISSA: I haven't changed in the style of work I make, however I have changed in the process of making the work. Instead of spending a lot of time in the darkroom and making contacts (which I miss terribly) I have a CD made of my negatives so that I have a digital copy for submissions, website updates, and proof printing. Now the time in the darkroom is more focused towards final prints and the creation of a project. The internet has made it more accessible to get your work out there and extend to art communities beyond your own. It's great to see submission policies changing to digital media, having to make slides became too expensive and overwhelming at times. I am in the process of making a book of the series 'Another Season Slips (While She Lies Still)'. I think it's important to find a balance between using the internet as a means to promote the work and having an actual physical representation of the work.

F: How do you gain inspiration for your work?   Where do you look for ideas?

M: My life experience inspires me. What surrounds me. Who surrounds me. I spend a lot of time editing and sequencing...things start to fall into place, it makes me think, and I keep making work. To stay inspired I look at books, magazines, read about photography, visit galleries, and stay connected to my fellow artist friends. I go back to my old sketch books and check in with ideas and observations I've had before. In my studio I keep books of artists and photographers that inspire me lying around in my studio, with the pages turned to images that speak to me. It's a constant source of visual inspiration and having the books is a way for me to live with the art.

F: What are some of your favorite websites? 

M: I look at this site alot! There are so much great work and resources all within this one site.
My bookmarks are full.
These are the one's I check in with weekly, which most likely will lead me to artists/photographers, blogs, and other wonderful things I tend to get lost in.
I Heart Photograph
Shane Lavalette's Journal
Women In Photography
Photography Now
Noorderlicht (One of the best photo festivals I've ever been to.)
Fecal Face
Humble Arts Foundation and so many others...the list could keep going on and on.
Not to mention all the great photographers websites and blogs out there!

F: Do you have any suggestion to help out new and emerging photographers gain exposure? 

I by no means have figured it all out for myself. I'm learning as I go.
What I would suggest that pushed me to a more committed level to my work was working alongside a photographer with whom you respect, and who will treat you with respect. I was very fortunate to have worked with a couple amazing photographers (Todd Hido and Jim Goldberg) that taught and inspired me on many levels.
Understand why you are making the images so that when you do promote it and get it out there you can talk about it.
Compile lists of Galleries, websites, magazines, organizations that you an affinity towards. Do the research so that you aren't submitting to places that don't have anything in common with your vision. Put work out there that you believe in. And to remember it's not a race.
F: How did you first start to promote yourself and your work?

I worked on sequencing and a maquette for a couple years before thinking about the promotion side of it. I showed a select few the work, went to a gallery for a review, and from there focused on making my webiste. I wanted to have a link directly to the work, making it as easy as possible to view it, knowing it would be sometime before all the prints were made because of the lack of full time darkroom access. Now that I have the website, I am focused on making a book and submitting to galleries, online art forums, and artful publications.

F: Where do you see your work going in the next year and the future in general?
I plan to continue promoting this work and making new work. So long as I shoot from a place of integrity towards my vision, and believe in it, I will go with where it all takes me. I will always make photographs of my life experience.