Bad haircuts and all: Melik Brown captures the moment with quarantine ‘porch-traits’ 

THURSDAY, May 28 — A photographer wanted to get out and do some work and a moment in time needed to be documented. A portrait genre was born. 

With shelter-at-home orders still in effect in greater Lansing, Melik Brown, the impresario behind the Lansing Made line of merchandise and maker of promotional images and videos, climbed into his van and assumed yet another guise — as an itinerant portrait taker. 

Brown, aka Metro Melik, is documenting a variety of local faces, from a safe distance, at a unique moment in history. The result is a hybrid of a formal portrait and an informal snapshot he calls a “porch-trait.” 

“I can’t go inside your house and you can’t go inside a studio, so why not use your porch?” Brown said. 

He’s gotten a warm, if sometimes awkward, reaction from his subjects when he arrives in his van and starts setting up in the front yard. 

“It’s like, “oh, look, another human being,’” he said. “People I’ve encountered are simplifying their interactions with the outside world, so when a stranger comes up, the usual social norms are out the window. There’s no shaking of hands, even if I’m taking a picture of a friend, no hugging.” 

He stays 10 feet away or more from his subjects and uses a zoom lens, but he still brings a mask along and asks puts it on if clients say they would prefer it. 

“Then we just yell at each other,” he said. 

The “porch-trait” gig is also a way for Brown to roll with the spring strangeness that has messed up people’s minds, lives and business models, including his. 

“This is kind of a weird time,” he said. “It’s a fun thing to offer people and still make use of the equipment I have, instead of just recording myself or taking another picture of my kid.” 

Professional portraits normally cost a bundle, but Brown is only charging $25, partly because he wants to collect a diverse assortment of people, and partly to acknowledge the limitations of a “porch-trait.” 

When it comes to photographing people, he’s more comfortable with “street photography” than formal sittings. 

“I like to take pictures of people in their moment, in their element, in their natural habitat,” he said. “To have people pose — I see the importance of it, but taking pictures of people is highly complicated. You need to have a skill set that is beyond just taking a picture.” 

The “porch-traits” have a relaxed feel, but Brown still has to deploy his skill set and worry about seven things at once — capturing a natural expression, avoiding eye blinks and putting people at ease while dealing with light, focus and other technical details.  

As word has spread about the project, his job has gotten even more complicated. 

“Now more families are picking up on it,” he said. Last week, he photographed a family of six, including a 6-month-old baby, a fidgety 3-year-old, a “very grumpy young man” and bouncing 6- and 8-year-olds.  

He gives porch sitters a polite disclaimer about pets and kids — “There’s no guarantee they will be looking at the camera the way you want them to.” 

“Kids see a stranger, carrying all this equipment, and they’re not always comfortable,” he said. “They’re like, ‘I don’t know what this is. I wanna go play.’” 

He tells parents to look at his camera, even if they are watching their kids, by using the “parent side-eye.” 

“Stay with me, stay with me,” he exhorts. It’s no guarantee, but at least it gives him a fighting chance to catch everyone looking the same way. 

After the shoot, he asks his subjects if they are interested in giving an oral history of their lives in quarantine. He hopes to compile the interviews, captured on video, into an on-line documentary or some other form. 

“So often, we document things after the fact and details get augmented and it turns into a fish story,” he said. “This is what this was, at this moment in time.” 

While talking with people about their lives during the coronavirus era, Brown is finding a lot of what he calls “I’m OK guilt” from people who are working from home and haven’t been hurt much financially. 

“They feel compelled to order take-out or delivery from a favorite restaurant, or buy things locally,” he said. “It’s good to see people are very aware of others who are struggling.”