Melissa Schriek was born in 1993 in Alkmaar in The Netherlands.

Through her work, she explores the relationships between individuals and their environment. Her projects are often created with a performative approach, aesthetically and conceptually exploring the border between staged and documentary photography. She perceives the camera as a powerful tool where facts and fiction can work together, in order to explore modern and social issues. Ultimately, the main aim of her work would be to raise questions about how we relate to one another and to our personal environment.

About ‘The City is a Choreography’ – words by Melissa Schriek: 

The City is a Choreography is an exploration of the contemporary city. The project consists of street scenes and portraits in public spaces that probes the disconnection between the city and the youth that reside within. With special attention to the sculptural qualities of the body and the relationship between space and individual – and between each other – the city always hums in the background of the images.

Especially in the digital age, I’m interested in exploring the way we connect with one another and our daily environment. While working on this project, I asked myself questions like: how do we cooperate in the shared public space of the city? Is every action we take in public a performance? And what does it mean to inhabit a space?