Veronica Melendez

Assistant Professor of Photography, Creative Arts, and Visual Culture
Veronica Melendez
Contact Veronica

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 serves as an introduction to B&W photography, 35mm film, and darkroom printing. Students will learn how to make silver gelatin prints, and conceptually compose a body of work. Towards the end of the semester students will spend some time scanning their B&W film and editing their scans using Adobe Photoshop. Throughout this course students will be introduced to historical and contemporary artists working within the medium of B&W photography. Students will also participate in critical discussions around the topic of photography and how this medium has been historically used as a tool for colonization. Class sessions will consist of printing in the darkroom, lectures, group discussions from assigned readings, and critiques. Keywords:B&W photography, film, Photography, darkroom

  • This course is intended for advanced photography students who want to continue to build upon their photographic practice. Students will be expected to work on 1 long term project that may evolve and change as the semester goes on. Class sessions will consist of weekly intensive critiques and reading discussions. Having already taken Photography I & II is highly recommended but not required. Students will be expected to produce a large amount of photographs and be ready to work independently. The final project will consist of a class installation of everyone's work and a final critique. If interested please email me your photography experience and the project you plan to work on. Keywords:Photography, projects, critiques, advanced photography

  • This course explores the photography book as a distinctive art form, focusing on its design, construction, and history. Through a study of photographs, image sequencing, book layout, and contemporary trends in the field, students will gain a deeper understanding of how photography books are conceptualized and produced. Weekly assigned readings will inform students' appreciation for the creative depth and intention that artists pour into their books. While students will not be creating photography books in this course, they will engage in discussions that position the photography book as an artistic object in its own right. Students will leave this course being able to critically analyze photography books and with a foundational understanding of how this category of art books are placed within the art world. Keywords:Photography, Art books, Photography books, Image, Design

  • This course is an introduction to color photography using analog photography, digital photography, and the digital darkroom. Students will also be encouraged to push their photographs beyond the digital realm and have them exist as tangible objects. Weekly assignments and critiques will go over the student's aesthetic and technical progress. While readings and class discussions moving away from the western canon and centering BIPOC artists will introduce students to historical and contemporary photographers & movements. Lab sessions will cover a range of techniques including the nuances of color, color film, digital, color management and archival inkjet printing. An additional lab workshop will meet once a week for two hours. Keywords:Color Photography, photo workshop II, Digital Photography, color

  • PHOTOTRY:An Intersection of Mediums

  • 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, art books, book arts

  • This course will introduce students to contemporary artists from the Central American Diaspora living in the U.S and abroad. The artists surveyed in this course will be working within a broad range of mediums including film/video, photography, illustration, sculpture, and mixed media. Throughout the semester students will also have a chance to collaborate and create artworks inspired by the content covered in class. Class time will consist of lectures, assigned readings, group discussions, and in class project time. Keywords:diaspora studies, diaspora, central america, Latin America, art

  • This course will look into collage as a form of expression within photography and explore the various ways this medium can take shape. During this course students will work on weekly projects while having the opportunity to utilize both digital and analog output methods. This class will primarily focus on contemporary collage artists through readings, artist presentations, and group discussions. As a class we will also spend time looking at everyone's work while participating in constructive critiques. Keywords:Collage, digital art, photography, photoshop, art

  • This course is an introduction to color photography starting with analog photography and moving through to the digital darkroom. Weekly assignments and critiques will go over student's aesthetic and technical progress.While readings and class discussions moving away from the western canon and centering BIPOC artists will introduce students to historical and contemporary photographers & movements. Lab sessions will cover a range of techniques including the nuances of color, color film, digital, color management and archival inkjet printing. An additional lab workshop will meet once a week for two hours. Keywords:Color Photography, photo workshop II, Digital Photography, color