About melody smith

Portrait Photographer | Petersburg, Virginia | 30 years in

Melody Smith award winning portrait photographer Petersburg VA serving Richmond and Central Virginia

It started with photographing people over thirty years ago.

Portraits on film, then weddings.

Thousands of sessions, hundreds of weddings.

Countless women sitting across from my camera with their guard up, their self-consciousness running, their inner monologue telling them all the reasons this was a bad idea.

For a long time I thought my job was to make people look "better than they did every day." I was very proud of just how far I could transform someone from the ordinary to extraordinary.

That is just simply how I view life - seeing something extraordinary in the ordinary. (That is a REAL human em dash, not ai friends!)

I was good at it. It won me awards, recognition, a full studio.

Somewhere along the way through my own dark nights, my own reckoning with the mirror, my own long walk back to myself my mission changed. I no longer wanted to show someone how they COULD be extraordinary, I wanted to show them that the ordinary moments are where the truth lies...and the truth is the highest form of beauty any human could attain.

I photograph people who are tired of performing for the world...or just want to see what it looks like to NOT have to perform. I photograph whats beyond the mirror.

Melody Smith portrait photographer Petersburg VA movement self portrait black outfit olive background

Melody Smith award winning photographer Petersburg VA self portrait movement extended arm olive background

Melody Smith portrait photographer self portrait movement pose Petersburg VA serving Richmond Virginia

My studio at 3 N. Sycamore Street in Petersburg has been called a sacred space by people who've sat in it.

I don't advertise that. But I don't deny it either.

Something happens in this space. It has happened hundreds of times, with hundreds of different women, in hundreds of different chapters of their lives.

I can't fully explain it and I don't need to.

What I know is this:

Most people have never been truly photographed.

They've been documented, decorated,

pointed at a camera and told to smile.

That is not what happens here

Melody Smith portrait photographer seated with camera Petersburg VA studio serving Richmond and Central Virginia

I live in Prince George, Virginia with my husband Mike, our son Perrin, and our Siamese cat Mr. Tumnus.

I am still learning.

That is, I think, the whole point.

Melody Smith portrait photographer Petersburg VA black and white self portrait direct gaze serving Richmond and Central Virginia

Credentials

Melody Smith is a Triple Master Photographer with over thirty years of experience and more than 100 international awards.

She has been honored as both Gold and Platinum Photographer of the Year by Professional Photographers of America in the International Photographic Competition, reaching Platinum Medalist status in 2021 — placing her image in the final four of her category from over 5,000 global entries.

She was inducted into Camera Craftsmen of America in June 2021, one of the most selective honors in American portrait photography. This is an invitation-only organization founded in 1905, comprising some of North America's most accomplished photographic artists. cameracraftsmen.org

Her work has earned repeated First Place recognition from WPPI — Wedding and Portrait Photographers International — including First Place in the Teenager category and First Place in the Children category, both published in Rangefinder Magazine's 2019 issues.

She was named WPPI Member of the Month and has been featured on Sue Bryce's Portrait Masters platform.

In May 2021, Professional Photographer Magazine — the flagship publication of PPA — published a feature profile on her studio and her approach to portraiture, titled "Reflecting Beauty."

In 2019, Richmond Magazine featured her photography in a style piece on Ignatius Hats, Petersburg's internationally recognized millinery house.

She has also been recognized by the Progress-Index as a Best of the Tri-Cities People's Choice Award winner for photography.