Research

During the 1990s Friend's work in Kosovo focused on the repression of Kosovo Albanians under the Milosevic regime, and she later explored the complexities of the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict in her book No Place Like Home: Echoes from Kosovo (Midnight Editions, USA, 2001).

From 2003-2007 she worked towards an exhibition Border Country, documenting immigration detainees through sound and image. The solo exhibition opened at Belfast Exposed Photography, Northern Ireland in 2007 and toured to three further UK galleries; in 2010 it was shown at Gallery 44, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Toronto, Canada. Border Country was also selected as one of the ten best works submitted for the European Central Bank Annual Photography Award 2008 Europe competition and was exhibited in Frankfurt & Cologne. Friend's book Border Country (including audio CD with 75 min. soundtrack) was published in November 2007 and was featured in Guardian Society (online) in 2008.  

Friend's latest project, The Home Front, which focuses on everyday militarisation in the UK and the links between war and entertainment, was first exhibited as a solo show at Impressions Gallery, Bradford 14th Sep - 23rd Nov 2013. Thereafter it was toured by Impressions Gallery: it showed at Durham Art Gallery (DLI Museum & Art Gallery) 28 June to 21 September 2014, & UH Galleries (University of Hertfordshire) 14 Nov 2014 to 31 Jan 2015. An edited solo exhibition is showing at Sol Mednick Gallery, University of the Arts Philadelphia, USA, 2 November – 1 December 2017. Two of The Home Front images are also included in A Green and Pleasant Land: British Landscape and the Imagination: 1970s to Now at Towner Gallery, UK, 30 September 2017 – 21 January 2018.

For more information about her work visit melaniefriend.com and also see http://www.impressions-gallery.com/exhibitions/exhibition.php?id=57