FRIEND OF A FRIEND

Meltz’s project began with his goal of shooting “100 different instant film portraits of 100 individuals all in one summer, Memorial Day to Labor Day.” He began shooting in the summer of 2015 and all of the subjects were people he knew through digital means. 

“About 90 percent of the people in the book are people I only really knew a little bit about,” Meltz said. “It was so rad to spend time with people and kick off a ‘Who are you, and how do we know each other?’ convo.”

At the end of the summer, with more than 100 photos in hand, Meltz launched a Kickstarter to turn his photos into an art show and a book. Incredibly, 143 backers pledged $6,922, knocking the $3,500 originally asked for out of the park.

At Chinatown Soup in November, the photo subjects all gathered together in a sort of surreal melding of art and life to view all 100 of their portraits on display.