Melissa Alcena: People of the Sun

“The Bahamas has suffered a lot in the past couple of years-enduring the aftermath and unfathomable devastation of Hurricane Dorian and then receiving another massive blow, that was the Covid-19 pandemic shortly after.

As an artist whose creations at the time were totally reliant upon my interactions with Bahamians in the everyday, to say that this time had been difficult for me would be an understatement. But with the introduction of safety protocols and vaccines, I was able to adjust my process and continue to create images…”

Melissa Alcena is a Bahamian portrait and documentary photographer based between The Bahamas and NYC. Alcena’s practice has been the lens through which she has reintroduced herself to the Bahamian landscape, after studying in Canada. Through this exploration and reintroduction, Alcena documents people in situ, expanding the visual tropes often exported from the Caribbean. Often in conversation with her subjects, Alcena’s photographs are a testament to kinship and an ode to the landscape.