Mel Phillips came to photography when a patron of his restaurant found they couldn’t pay for their meal, so left him with a camera instead. At about the same time as that, one of the kitchen staff wanted to set up a darkroom in the kitchen – and he did, and then so did Mel.

With an art background, Mel could draw and paint, so the camera was a natural extension of those skills. He was around 40 at the time, his lovely wife Vicki wasn’t available for front of house in the Restaurant anymore, and Mel decided it was time to up tools and change his life.

He studied at Wellington Polytechnic, finishing first the Certificate in Photography, and later the Agfa Bursary. Mel joined a prominent Wellington photographer in his commercial studio, where the business of photography became a reality. Setting up his own studio less than a year later, he rapidly became a key player in the commercial photographic arena in Wellington.

Almost simultaneously, Mel began teaching photography. His skills as a chef translated into photography when he discovered an old photography book that included recipes for alternative photographic processing. Unable to resist any recipe, Mel was soon elbow deep in dangerous chemistry. This lead to a position teaching antique processes to students at Wellington Polytechnic.

A mixture of teaching and commercial photography has been his staple diet ever since. Mel (who knows EVERYTHING) is the visionary, the leader, and the wild boy of The Photo School.