Hi, I’m Melissa Kuhnell!

A freelance travel photographer based near Washington, DC, I spend most of my life on the road seeking new adventures.

I’m a wanderer and observer at heart, endlessly curious to see and learn about places and cultures.

Over the past two decades, I’ve been lucky enough to travel in parts of Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Southeast Asia photographing landscapes and glimpses of daily life.

My Images

My photos have been published in U.S. and international newspapers and magazines—including the New York Times, the Guardian, and Travel and Leisure—as well as on the Lonely Planet and BBC websites, in DK Eyewitness guidebooks, and in National Geographic calendars.

Prints of my photographs are available by contacting me directly. For commercial and editorial work, my catalog is represented by Robert Harding Images.

I do very limited image processing, and my portraits of people are usually candid shots. Although digital photo manipulation and portraiture are both arts unto themselves, my style of photography is natural and documentary.

My Story

Born in 1975, I grew up near Cincinnati, Ohio. My father adored photography, which he learned from his grandfather. As a result, much of my childhood was spent posing for portraits, watching a huge number of seemingly identical sunsets, and sitting in stopped cars in random places because the light was “good” and Dad needed to “jump out and grab a shot.”

It wasn’t until adulthood that I caught the photography bug myself. My first travels abroad left my mind full of images that I longed to express. A few years later, I picked up my Dad’s old SLR camera, took a photography class, and was immediately hooked.

Photography changed how I looked at the world around me. I saw details I would never have noticed before. I perceived light as something all-important and constantly changing. And I learned the power of framing a moment and freezing it in place.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

– HENRY MILLER

Hi, I’m Melissa!

A freelance travel photographer based in Washington DC, I spend most of my life on the road seeking new adventures.

I’m a wanderer and observer at heart, endlessly curious to see and learn about places and cultures.

Over the past two decades, I’ve been lucky enough to travel in parts of Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Southeast Asia photographing landscapes and glimpses of daily life.

My Images

My photos have been published in U.S. and international newspapers and magazines—including the New York Times, the Guardian, and Travel and Leisure—as well as on the Lonely Planet and BBC websites, in DK Eyewitness guidebooks, and in National Geographic calendars.

Prints of my photographs are available by contacting me directly. For commercial and editorial work, my catalog is represented by Robert Harding Images.

I do very limited image processing, and my portraits of people are usually candid shots. Although digital photo manipulation and portraiture are both arts unto themselves, my style of photography is natural and documentary.

My Story

Born in 1975, I grew up near Cincinnati, Ohio. My father adored photography, which he learned from his grandfather. As a result, much of my childhood was spent posing for portraits, watching a huge number of seemingly identical sunsets, and sitting in stopped cars in random places because the light was “good” and Dad needed to “jump out and grab a shot.”

It wasn’t until adulthood that I caught the photography bug myself. My first travels abroad left my mind full of images that I longed to express. A few years later, I picked up my Dad’s old SLR camera, took a photography class, and was immediately hooked.

Photography changed how I looked at the world around me. I saw details I would never have noticed before. I perceived light as something all-important and constantly changing. And I learned the power of framing a moment and freezing it in place.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

– HENRY MILLER