About
Melinda Reyes is a Massachusetts-based photographer deeply driven by social justice. After earning her BFA in Photography at Rochester Institute of Technology and attending a year-long photography residency program in Salzburg College in Austria, Reyes traveled throughout the U.S. working as a freelance photographer and in studios, labs, and galleries. Ten years later she became fully invested in social welfare and advocacy, earning a Master’s of Social Work at Simmons University. Currently fusing both professional paths, Reyes utilizes the power of documentary photography to initiate awareness and change in vulnerable populations.
Her newest body of work, Winslow Gray Road and Conversations with you was a Top 200 finalist in Critical Mass 2025 and won 1st place in the documentary category of the 25th Julia Margaret Cameron awards. She was invited to participate in the CENTER’s exclusive Portfolio Reviews in Santa Fe 2025. Winslow Gray Road was first introduced formally to the photography world in Lenscratch on October 1st, 2024. Although the full project is still emerging and expanding into new chapters, the work is ready to be shown to a larger audience.
Her series The Quiet World of Aging has been given national attention, including two solo shows and has been in many group exhibitions. It was a Top 200 finalist in Critical Mass in 2019 and Editor’s pick in Lensculture’s Portrait and Emerging Talent awards. It was selected to be part of the 9th Edition of Photoville’s The Fence. Most recently, a segment of the women within The Quiet World of Aging was given an honorable mention in the 22nd Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards.
Her documentary series, Inside the Walls: An Intimate Look at our Elderly during Covid-19 also gained national attention and has had 2 solo shows and has been in multiple group exhibitions. The series was a Top 200 finalist in Critical Mass 2021 and it has won multiple awards including 1st place in the portrait series of the 16th Annual Julia Margaret Camera Awards, the Lucie Foundation’s “The Portrait Project,” Photoworks, and the Photographer’s Eye. It was short listed for the Siena Awards.
Her time has also been spent immersed in a personal, ongoing documentary As Parts of You Unfold which has spanned the last decade and explores the intimacy and connection between her and her granddaughters. It was the Fine Art winning series in the 18th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards and garnered 5 Honorable mentions in the 22nd Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards in multiple categories and was exhibited in Barcelona in April-May 2025 and published in the World of Photography Volume II. It has been part of a half dozen group exhibitions.
Contact information:
@melz821
781-510-9863
EDUCATION
Simmons University, Boston, MA Master of Social Work, 1997-1999
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY Bachelor of Fine Art in Photography, 1986-1989
Salzburg College, Salzburg, Austria One-year Residence Program in Photography, 1987-1988
Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, MA Studies in Communications & Photography, 1984-1986
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Flora T. Little Gallery, The Quiet World of Aging & Inside the Walls: An Intimate Look at our Elders during COVID-19 Bridgewater MA July-August 2021
Freedom Public Library, Inside the Walls: An Intimate Look at our Elders during COVID-19, Freedom, NH January-March, 2020
The Brush Art Gallery & Art Studios, The Quiet World of Aging, Lowell, MA October-November, 2019
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
The World of Photography Vol. 2 & Exhibition April-May 2025 Barcelona
SE Center for Photography, Summer, 8/2-8/31/24
SE Center for Photography, Family Ties, 6/7-6/29/24
SE Center for Photography, The Woman’s View, 3/1-3/31/24
Cultural Center of Cape Cod, Winter Gardens, February -March 2024
A.Smith Gallery, Common Objects, 5/12-6/22/23
PH21 Gallery, Silence, 6/4-6/30/23
PhotoPlace Gallery, Botanical, 3/31-4/23/22
A. Smith Gallery, Story, 9/2-10/13/22
Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Behind The Lens, 2021
PhotoPlace Gallery, Portraits of Self Isolation, 7/30-8/20/20
The Photographer’s Eye, Living and Photographing in the Time of Covid-19, 5/8-8/1/20
Photo Place Gallery, Being Human, August-September 2019
The Perfect Exposure Gallery, Instagramland 2019, June-July, 2019
AWARDS
Finalist, Critical Mass 2025 Top 200 Winslow Gray Road & Conversations with you
25th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, Documentary Series winner. Winslow Gray Road and Conversations with you
22nd Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, 6 Honorable Mentions, As arts of you unfold
18th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, Fine Art Series winner
Finalist, Critical Mass, Top 200, 2021 - Inside the Walls: An Intimate Look at our Elders during COVID-19
16th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, portrait series winner, Inside the walls: An intimate look at our elders during Covid-19, 2021
Lucie Foundation’s Portrait Project, series winner, Inside the walls: An Intimate look at our elders during Covid-19, 2020
Siena Awards, series winner, Inside the walls: An intimate look at our elders during Covid-19, 2020
Finalist, Critical Mass, Top 200, 2019 The Quiet World of Aging
Editor’s Pick, LensCulture Emerging Talent, 2019 “Cornelia,” from The Quiet World of Aging
Editor’s Pick, LensCulture Portrait Award, 2019 “Catherine,” from The Quiet World of Aging
*CENTER: Invitation to Portfolio Reviews, 2025
PUBLICATIONS
World Photography Volume II As Parts of. you unfold
She,Story, and The 27 exhibition books by A. Smith Gallery
Lenscratch - Interviews and project- Winslow Gray Road 10/1/24 and The Quiet World of Aging, 2/22/23
Botanical exhibition book by PhotoPlace Gallery
The Conway Daily Sun, 1/8/2021
Brockton Enterprise Newspaper, 8/25/2021
Atlas for Humanity Magazine 5/31/2020
Living in the time of COVID-19 exhibition book by The Photographer’s Eye
Art in the Time of Corona - volume II
Being Human exhibition book 2019 by PhotoPlace Gallery
The Boston Globe, 10/23/19