Melissa Renwick is a portrait and documentary photographer based on the Canadian west coast, in Tofino. After years of living in large cities, she moved to the small, remote community over eight years ago to confront herself without distraction. Removed from traffic, crowds, and constant noise, she was forced into stillness. The silence she found in forests, coastlines, and long stretches of waiting continues to shape both her life and work.

Her practice explores the complex relationship between place and the people who inhabit it, with a particular focus on coastal and remote communities. Through intimate portraiture and long-form storytelling, she examines how geography, isolation, and environment shape identity and belonging. 

Renwick’s work has been exhibited internationally and recognized by organizations including The Magenta Foundation, FotoFilmic, and the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. She was a co-recipient of the 2019 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship, a recipient of the 2020 Yannis Behrakis Photojournalism Grant, the 2024 Trebek Initiative Grant, and a finalist for the 2025 Salt Spring National Art Prize.

She has contributed to The New York Times, TIME Magazine, WIRED, The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, and The Toronto Star, where she previously worked as a staff photographer.