Melanie Smith

I was involved from day one of the annual music-literary-based festival as the Official photographer.

I've been working for the online magazine since Mudkiss Fanzine closed its doors and was made the Head of Photography, progressing to Editor of Live Reviews.

I oversee the photographers, give authorisation for reviewers to request guestlist and photo passes, and keep a spreadsheet for live reviews. Keeping abreast of PR requests and liaising as necessary.

I am also the book and theatre editor.

I began to shoot live shows in 2008, as part of my role within my online music magazine - 'Mudkiss Fanzine' and also produced several photoshoots to accompany interviews.

My photos have now been used in some of the following print publications:

Daily Mail/ The Guardian/ Mojo/ Classic Rock/ Louder Than War/Powerplay Magazine/NME/ Daily Mirror/ The Cornishman/ West Briton Newspaper/ Ilford Recorder/Warrington Guardian/ Guitar Bible/ The Sunday Times (Culture Section)/ Bury Times// Vogue/ Liverpool Echo/ Viva Life!/ Hit Music (China)// Digital Camera/ WAM Magazine/ Viva Le Rock/ Rebellion Festival Programme 2012/ Book cover 'AAA' by Teddie Dahlin/ (Painting) inspired by my portrait of Nina on the cover of '13 Knots' by Nina Antonia.

Also used in a variety of online magazines and websites, including Mudkiss Fanzine/ Gladstone Magazine/ Focus Wales/ The Chester Chronicle/ Flazeda Magazine/ The Quietus/ Louder Than War/ Penny Black Magazine/ Gig Slutz/ Louder Than Words// CRACK// Nick Cave Online/ Rocks Backpages// The Brundell Social Club/ Punk Globe// Rocksucker// Muso's Guide// Suspect Device Zine/ ENS 24// Subculture/ The Ringmaster/ Hot Press/ Urber Rock// Talk Talk Net/ IMDB// John Maher Racing/ Think Baby Music/ Pearls & Swine (accessories) Classic Rock/ B&S Magazine/ Theatre Royal Windsor website/ OXHX Magazine/ SoGlos.com Magazine.

Plus other various band websites, used for promotional posters, flyers, CD artwork and occasional advertising.

Provided images for several music books:

Johnny Thunders (French edition) Gary Barlow Autobiography 2018 (A Better Me - live photo) Skin autobiography; Brix Smith Start 'Babble-On'; Zoe Howes Novel

Recently I have been commissioned to photograph rap-pop artist Ashnikko's show in Manchester for her management team (Dec 2023)

Editor In Chief for the multi faceted music based Mudkiss website since June 2008, also responsible for the social networking sites - MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.

My work involved overseeing contributors work, editing and uploading to the site, with monthly updates to members of the site and blogging on the network sites.

Generating interviews and conducting live show reviews, liaising with PR companies and distributing ideas to team members. I prided myself on being pretty damn good at computer skills, organisation, communication and web-literate.

We became globally recognised and received thousands of hit per month. We
completed our fourth interview book, which can be found here: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/mudkiss - although due to work loads we no longer have time to produce anymore. I created a Mudkiss calendar each year with photos shot by myself, featuring either live shows or portraits.

Mudkiss closed its revolving doors in December 2013 so I could continue with my photography.