biography

A Chapel Hill-based photographer who photographs the rights of passage for society families. Missy uses both film and digital cameras and captures documentary and fine-art images from weddings and parties.

A graduate of The University of North Carolina, Missy learned photography from her grandmother, an amateur photographer with a home darkroom. In the late 90's Missy ushered in a documentary and fine-art style of wedding photography to the south and in 2004 began working in NEW YORK CITY.

As an artist she explores the dings and dents our culture leaves behind on humanity.  As a photographer she shoots editorial, commercial, portrait assignments-and yes-on occasion-she photographs a wedding. 

Missy and her daughter, Eliza, live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and try to survive driving lessons on the back roads of Orange County.

ACHIEVEMENTS

2013 FLANDERS GALLERY, SOLO SHOW, DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA

2012 ON THE ROAD WITH JIMMIE JOHNSON

2012 HEITZ WEITZEN GALLERY, solo show, Charlotte, North Carolina

2007 NBC TODAY SHOW appearance

2006 MYSELF TOGETHER AGAIN, photography project Endowed by a Susan G. Komen Grant

1996 EDDIE ADAMS WORKSHOP X PARTICIPANT

1995 VISUAL ART EXCHANGE, group show, Raleigh, North Carolina

1995 HEARST FOUNDATION, award in photojournalism

1995 INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PRIZE, team reporting 1995 ELECTRONIC PHOTOJOURNALISM WORKSHOP, fellow

1994 SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM GRANT 

EDITORIAL CLIENTS : MARTHA STEWART LIVING, PEOPLE MAGAZINE, RANDOM HOUSE, FOOD & WINE MAGAZINE, ABC GOOD MORNING AMERICA, THE WASHINGTON POST, MSNBC, WALTER MAGAZINE

CORPORATE CLIENTS: IBM, AMERICAN EXPRESS, NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE, JIMMIE JOHNSON RACING

PRIVATE CLIENTS: Tim & Nina Belk, Crandall & Erskine Bowles, Judy & Jamie Dimon, Mia Farrow, Chandra & Jimmie Johnson, Libby Johnson, Tabitha and Stephen King

ARTIST STATEMENT

As a photographer I bear witness to the traditions, rituals, and rites of passage of my friends, family and clients. As an anthropologist, I leave behind an archive of images from my life’s work; and in turn, reveal a tableaux of how a population in our culture celebrates marriage and family. As a woman, I understand and reveal the perfectly flawed form of the female body and capture a partner’s unfettered love for it. As a craftsman, I escape to worlds filled with papers, books, leathers, cloths and wonderful characters to unearth raw materials for the objects I produce. As a mother, I know children will behave, smile, and please us only when they choose. As a person I have discovered my love for humanity and the ways in which we celebrate life. — MISSY MCLAMB