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Melanie Burford • Photographer Profile
Melanie Burford is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and producer specializing in journalistic storytelling, project management, and digital communication. She is the Founder and CEO of the visual production company Silvereye Pictures in Bergen, Norway, and is co-Founder of the photo collective Prime.
Melanie Burford
bergen, norway • +47.4148.5547 • mel@melanieburford.com
In Cambodia, the monsoon season can turn entire communities into islands for months at a time, cutting them off from medical services. In a country dealing with an alarming Tuberculosis crisis, this is a recipe for disaster. Thankfully for the people of Cambodia, the dedicated health workers of Operation ASHA travel by foot, by motorcycle, and even by boat to bring cutting-edge Tuberculosis care to the most isolated communities.
In the Maryknoll Sisters Residential Center in Ossining, New York, 70 retired Maryknoll Sisters adjust to their new lives after living abroad for 50-60 years. Many of the Sisters are over the age of ninety. And as each Sister passes, their stories of selfless dedication to humanity are lost with them.
Are we prepared?
Extreme rainfall is a serious challenge for Western Norway. In specific areas, flooding could be twice as high as the floods that hit the region in 2005. This film presents results from the CICERO-led research project TWEX Translating Weather Extremes into the Future that offer local and regional decision-makers a more realistic picture of what future weather extremes might look like, hence facilitating adaptation planning and implementation.
A short film introducing Trond Mohn Stiftelse, the Trond Mohn Foundation, founded in 2004 by means of a NOK 250 million donation (approx. USD 30 million) from Trond Mohn. The foundation gives grants toward research and research supporting activities at the University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital.
Seventy-five choir members from the Bergen Philharmonic Chorus, sheltering in the safety of their own homes, created this extraordinary piece of music during quarantine from the Coronavirus in Bergen, Norway. Each singer recorded their own selfie videos which was then pieced together to create The Whitsun Hymn from Edvard Grieg from Peer Gynt.
Achieving financial security is an uphill battle for women in rural Myanmar. To solve this, women are teaming up in extraordinary ways to lift themselves out of poverty and invest back into their communities. Together, they gather in groups to start communal savings banks, elect leaders, receive financial training and start small businesses, all while strengthening their social connections and ability to bring about change. This platform is possible through the award-winning micro banking program, WORTH, a subset of PACT Myanmar, one of the oldest running aid organizations in the country.
“Living City: A Tale of Two Bridges” compares the decision to replace the 60-year-old Tappan Zee Bridge connecting Westchester and Rockland counties across the Hudson River with the decision to renovate the iconic Brooklyn Bridge that is more than twice that age.
Jason Melerine was born to the water. His father fished, his grandfather fished, his great-grandfather fished. At age 11, Melerine drew pictures of the boat he would someday own. The day he turned 16, he quit school to go crabbing. Now 28, he can barely read and write. Fishing off Delacroix Island, a sliver of land alongside the Louisiana coast, is all he knows.
The power of music: Six young voices pay tribute to our front line workers throughout the world who haven't stopped fighting COVID-19 since the day it arrived. The Edvard Grieg children’s choir came together during quarantine to give thanks on behalf of us all.
Using Zoom to rehearse from the safety of their homes before recording the music standing two meters apart in the empty music studios at Grieg Hall during quarantine, the six-member choir sang The Lord is my Shepherd (hymn 23) by Howard Goodall (Faber Music) under the leadership of Conductor Håkon Matti Skrede.
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About
Melanie Burford is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and producer specializing in journalistic storytelling, project management, and digital communication. She is the Founder and CEO of the visual production company Silvereye Pictures in Bergen, Norway, and is co-Founder of the photo collective Prime.
She was part of the team of Dallas Morning News photographers who received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She was Series Producer at Blue Chalk Media for a six-part film series for The New York Times. An educator for over 20 years, Melanie is currently teaching photojournalism and film production at the University of Bergen, and digital communication strategy at Kristiania University College.
Melanie founded The Silvereye Project, a workshop-based educational program building relationships by exploring home, belonging, and identity. She was Coordinator for three National Geographic Photo Camps in Norway and was Editor and Coordinator for NG photo camps in India and the U.S.
Melanie’s work has been recognized at the Emmy Advanced Media Awards, the Webby Awards, the National Headliner Awards, the Harry Chapin Media Awards, the Clarion Awards, NPPA Best of Photojournalism, and Pictures of the Year International.
See Also
Melanie Burford’s short film The Last Mile is the Longest has been shortlisted by the World Health Organization’s Health for All Film Festival.
Sony Alpha Universe published an article highlighting the work of Melanie Burford and National Geographic photographer Lynn Johnson as they documented women's issues in Cambodia and Myanmar for Ripple Effect Images.