Beyond Imagery

Though he’s run a small portrait business since the age of 14, the prospect of shooting platters of plant-based protein and the chefs who create them felt foreign at first to Dallin Mello, an Indy photo intern whose work on food evolved into the images in this week’s cover story. But after the first restaurant, Mello, who is a vegetarian, began to get excited about “photos of food I would genuinely enjoy.” The second-year UCSB student has also found meaning in art and journalism as they intersect with mental illness to create spaces of healing and advocacy. “I look up to those with the strength that it takes to continue to create work despite struggling with mental illness,” he said. “For one to use writing and art as a space of awareness and growth is admirable.” More of the self-taught photographer’s images can be seen at dallinmello.com.