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Stephanie Mei-Ling

@stephaniemeiling

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3200

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Photographer
Scorpio
Angeleno 🌴 in NY🗽
🇹🇼🌍🧿👽
Contact: [email protected]

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for years, it was hard for me to listen to Stevie Wonder’s “As.” the song had become attached to a very specific memory.

i found myself having to plan my brother’s funeral. new territory, obviously. i chose “Ribbon in the Sky” as the opening and “As” as the closing. THE ONE SONG to close. not knowing you needed a playlist worth of music to carry that final procession - the time it took for people to walk up to the casket and say their last goodbyes. there were so many people, the crowd spilled outside, and “As” kept playing over and over and over again, for what felt like forever.

for years, when the song came on, i had to turn it off. eventually, I began reaching for it again as a beautiful memory.

today marks the 50th anniversary of Songs in the Key of Life. i’m grateful for this album, for the music, for my favorite artist, Stevie, and for the language and healing his music has given me from my teenage years to adulthood.

always…

1. recent outtake from my ongoing grief project. yellow is my brother’s favorite color
2. ticket stub from the Songs in the Key of Life 40th anniversary tour
3. my last bday i spent with my brother
4. no explanation needed
5. my “As” tattoo by @stephaniemeiling

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17

5 days ago

15 summers at riis.

many years of photographing the same place. i made friends. people came and went. i watched the beach change. much of what was once is no longer, but the sand, the sea and the beautiful memories remain.

i’ve been going back through all of it lately, wanting to share some of the outtakes i’ve accumulated over the years. beginning with a few personal moments from along the way.

just pieces of my own life there. for many summers it felt like my little slice of heaven on earth.

#riis #riisbeach #summer #personalwork taken in Riis Beach by @stephaniemeiling

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23

9 days ago

went mostly to enjoy this year with my pre-dawn squad. i brought my camera along and photographed whatever caught me along the way. a few moments from monday.

#westindiandayparade #jouvert #laborday #nyc #brooklyn taken in Brooklyn by @stephaniemeiling

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8

24 days ago

my first day in the water this summer. some things never change.

#riis taken in Jacob Riis Beach by @stephaniemeiling

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5

2 months ago

On summer days, I made my way to the beach. Often coming alone, but not always wanting to be alone. I’d spot you from afar and plant my towel right next to you.

On those tough days, during periods of uncertainty, the beach was my practice. The sea, my healing. But seeing you there was the extra warmth I didn’t know I needed. Your tent set up like a rogue pirate queen, making ceviche fresh, burning incense, your whole setup right there in the sand.

You’d been coming to this beach for decades, long before it got crowded, before any of it changed. You were already a fixture. A pillar of the community.

Riis will never be the same without you.
Fly free, Queen Victoria

#riisbeach #pridemonth taken in Jacob Riis Beach by @stephaniemeiling

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25

3 months ago

new york, i love you.
you deserve this win 🎉🏆

#goknicks🏀 by @stephaniemeiling

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5

4 months ago

self portraits, 2025

between the body and the photograph

presence and stillness, an ongoing practice by @stephaniemeiling

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1

6 months ago

Steel is strong enough to reinforce a building, yet delicate enough to form a scalpel. In the artist Maren Hassinger’s work, the material adopts both of those qualities, but mostly it is alive.

Over the years, her sculptural interventions have been activated by the elements, time, and bodies (namely her own and that of Senga Nengudi, her fellow artist and co-conspirator since the ’70s). The 78-year-old’s largest retrospective to date opens at the @bampfa in June.

Ahead of that occasion, we called her up to discuss her feelings about public art, what an early rejection taught her, and why she never became a starving artist. Link in bio to read the full interview.

Words: Ella Martin-Gachot
Portrait photography: @stephaniemeiling by @stephaniemeiling

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28

8 months ago

🦂+ 🌊+✨

another year on this earth.

i just closed a 9 year cycle. personal year 9s are often the hardest -emotional, filled with endings, stretches of aloneness, completions, and letting go.

for me, it meant more lessons in surrender. sometimes floating, sometimes (mostly) drowning in the flow.

not my favorite year.

it forced a quiet but very intense growth. metamorphosis.

thankful to the waves that taught me how to stay.

to the year that felt so uncomfortable, thank you.

thank you to the ones who held me, listened, checked in, remembered.

888
710 42
315816
514 713 194 taken in EARTH by @stephaniemeiling

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118

a year ago

A few of my favorite frames from my recent assignment with @propublica

I spent time in Central Louisiana and Albuquerque with people navigating the country’s shifting food-aid system. As food insecurity rises, food banks are seeing the highest levels of need since the aftermath of the Great Recession.

I’m always grateful to those who lend their image and voice to stories like this. It’s a reminder that these issues are more than numbers, they’re about real people.

Thank you @andreawise_ 💛💫

Reporting by Ruth Talbot and Nicole Santa Cruz by @stephaniemeiling

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14

a year ago

portrait sessions with malcom. taken in Baja Studio by @stephaniemeiling

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9

a year ago

one month home.

old friends.
new babies.
sunshine.
reflections.
reunions.
milestones.
good food.
full heart.

LA always finds a way to remind me ✨💫💛🙏🏾 taken in Los Angeles by @stephaniemeiling

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11

a year ago