Frances Melhop

Frances Melhop is a photographer and visual artist, born in Christchurch, New Zealand, now living in the USA. She has worked globally in the fashion industry as a photographer, constructing imagery; conceptualizing, shooting, and directing stories for publications such as Vogue Italy editions, Vogue Australia, Elle Portugal, and Marie Claire Italy. In 2009, Luerzer's Archive named Melhop one of The World’s 200 Best Advertising Photographers for the images she created for the campaign of Descamps, France. In 2014 she was awarded the NNDA Comstock Innovator of the Year Award for her arts and community work at St Mary’s Art Center, in Virginia City, Nevada. Melhop’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions worldwide. She works in photography, stitching, printmaking, and oil paint, exploring the tensions between the virtual and physical ways we experience the world. Melhop has taught Photography, Art History (Women in Art), Introduction to the Arts, Printmaking, Drawing and Visual Foundations, at University of Nevada, Reno, Truckee Meadows Community College, and Western Nevada College. In 2020 she opened the contemporary art gallery, Melhop Gallery º7077, at Lake Tahoe, Nevada presenting local, national and international artists.