Author: Huang Nina
Northwest Asia Weekly
Melissa thinking about self-portrait
Melissa Ponder has dedicated her career to advancing equity and closing disparities—first in education and nonprofits, and now through her photography.
Ponder is a Korean-American military kid. She was born near her father’s hometown in southern Missouri and grew up with her family. Her mother was one of the first Korean wives of GIs. Their families have lived on air bases in Missouri, South Korea and Germany.
Given her unique childhood experiences and inclusive and cross-cultural communication, she is able to see things through an equitable lens.
Ponder has worked in education, including equity diversity training. She has also worked in project management in international community health services, serving diverse populations to reduce diabetes disparities.
She moved from the education and nonprofit sectors to pursue her photography hobby. Ponder has been a professional photographer since 2007. She started by carrying a camera with her, personally documenting sights wherever she went, and taking pictures of most people.
Her first gig was filming a family friend’s wedding.
“It’s a gift for them because I don’t know anything about wedding photography,” she said.
Meditation did her homework. She went to the library to study wedding photography. She didn’t realize that being “photo ready” was one thing, and she wasn’t one for ambience, but in the end she really enjoyed working 10 hours a day.
“I loved how challenging it was, it was stressful, but not boring. It was my first professional gig and really pushed me to pursue photography in that direction,” she explained.
Ponder said she initially wanted to be a good enough photographer to help members of the community who would never hire a professional because of the cost.
Photography allows Ponder to participate in community activities. Most of Ponder’s clients are nonprofits, including Health Point, High Public Schools, UTOPIA Washington, Native Action Network, and more.
Her photography services range from event photos and avatars to images for marketing materials.
“What I do is mainly provide images for people to tell their stories,” she said.
As a recipient of a Comcast RISE grant, Ponder hopes to establish her photography business as an LLC and join minority women in business ventures so she can expand and increase awareness and visibility in the wider community.
She also wants to expand her team to hire additional support to maintain the business and update her website.
“I really like what I do and who I work with because I get to work with a lot of the communities I serve and advocate for. I’m not limited because I’m independent, and if I can keep doing that, then I want to do that and still maintain the previous relationship,” she explained.
“Whether it’s through my training, or I naturally see that the people who hire me don’t necessarily see fair things because a lot of the people I work with are not familiar with our community and I’m sensitive to the work that makes possible would be poor porn for some clients,” she said.
Through her independent work, Ponder also educates her clients about inclusivity and diversity in photography. For example, she was able to offer advice and perspectives on taking more photos of people of color that people might not have noticed. Ponder hopes that through her photography, she can help clients become more community-conscious and easily engage with various communities.
When Ponder isn’t busy taking pictures for the community, she enjoys spending time playing with her 8-month-old grandson.
Nina can be contacted at info@nwasianweekly.com.
