I hate being in front of the camera, and I think many photographers feel the same way. So when I discovered Mike Mellia and found out that his Instagram account is almost 99% self-portraits, I was more than a little impressed. But wait! Many of his selfies are also cinemagraphs? I don't know how much more impressed I can get.
Mike is a commercial portrait photographer based out of New York City, and has worked for clients like Vogue, Harry Winston, and Brooks Brothers to name a few. Most commercial shooters seem to fill their Instagram account with samples of work they've done for clients, but not Mellia, he fills his feed with himself and it's awesome.
Part of the gold is in the images themselves, but another large part is in the captions. Subtle, witty, and often mockingly sincere, his captions give a humorous context to seemingly random images.
Much like episodes of Friends were all titled with the introductory "The One..." ("The One with Chandler's Work Laugh" or "The One Where the Stripper Cries"), Mike's posts are all self encapsulated stories about "that one time..."
So how do you take this concept and make it even more fun? Make some of those selfies into cinemagraphs.
That one time I was an ad man
That one time I made a bet with a Flemish perfumier
That one time I had spring fever
That one time I offered to help out in the kitchen
That one time practice made perfect
That one time I was out of the office
That one time I taught literature humanities at a small liberal arts college
Follow Mike on Instagram. It will be like that one time you followed that other photographer on Instagram, but better.
Images used with permission
[Via Mike Mellia]
"Follow Mike on Instagram. It will be like that one time you followed that other photographer on Instagram, but better."
... with the difference that he won't EVER follow you back.
That one time I looked at the camera when taking a selfie.
hahaha been following Mike on Instagram for a while now. Hilarious stuff and great photos!
Cool selfies, talented for sure. But the fact that he makes no effort in following others makes me not want to follow his work.
It's kinda the point with his selfie project.
How old are you? 10? Nobody has to follow you back if they don't want to. #follow4follow #bff
Yes, I'm 10 years old. And no, I don't care if people don't follow me back. But the fact that he doesn't care to follow anyone just makes it seems like he's out there just to gain followers, and not interact with anyone.
Um… so?
It still seems that you do care (a lot) about following back. Maybe he has another account, maybe he is using RSS feed (like I do). Where is written you have to follow someone and interact with others?
I mean, I follow people on IG because I like their work, not because I have some sort of expectation that they will follow me back. If you want people to follow you make great content.
Agreed. I follow companies I work with, and people I find interesting. There are a few I follow just so I can comment once in a while. And then I have actual friends I exchange likes with. But there should never be any expectation. My wife and daughter don't even like all my photos.
At first glance I thought this was a Jaime Kennedy satire prank. "Best ever", really? They're not that interesting. This whole article reads, "Check out what my friend is doing, give him attention". His cinemagraphs are pretty poorly executed as well. The technical quality of the photographs is there. But again, not that interesting.
I've actually never met the guy, I wish we were friends though because he seems like a cool dude.
These are great!