Veronica Melendez

Assistant Professor of Photography, Creative Arts, and Visual Culture
Veronica Melendez
Contact Veronica
vmHA@hampshire.edu

Mail Code HA
Veronica Melendez
Jerome Liebling Center 101
413.549.4600

Veronica Melendez is an interdisciplinary artist working across illustration, photography, animation, and zines. Her work speaks to the broader theme of finding community within the Central American diaspora and creating home in the United States.

She is a founder of La Horchata, an arts publication highlighting creatives from the Central American diaspora, which has been exhibited at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, and the inaugural exhibition “Presente!” in the Molina Family Latino Gallery at the National Museum of American History. Melendez was selected for the 2018 Archive of Documentary Arts Collection Award for Documentarians of the American South by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post, NPR, VICE, and Hyperallergic, among others. She received a B.F.A. from the Corcoran College of Art and Design and M.F.A. from the University of Hartford.

Recent and Upcoming Courses

  • This course will encourage students to push their photographs beyond the digital realm and have them exist as tangible objects. Drawing on the conceptual significance of intentionality when it comes to digital output, students will be introduced to adjustment layers in Adobe Photoshop where they will edit their images and gain an understanding of digital workflow. Students will use Epson printers to create high quality prints from their existing image files and will have the chance to experiment with different paper textures and sizing options. This course will look at examples of contemporary LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC artists who are pushing the boundaries of how photography exists outside the computer. Class time will consist of lectures, group discussions from assigned readings, in-class weekly assignments, and group critiques. Keywords:Photography, Photoshop, Printing

  • This course will explore the many facets of zine making and look into the contemporary LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC zine scenes. Students will learn how to sequence photographs to better suit a book format and gain a comfortable understanding of Adobe InDesign to digitally lay out their images for printing. Using inkjet and laser printers, students will experiment with different output methods and will gain knowledge on various binding techniques. Class time will consist of lectures, group discussions from assigned readings, in-class weekly assignments, and group critiques. Keywords:Zines, photography, InDesign, photo books