Michelle Magdalena Maddox

Michelle Magdalena Maddox ( she/her ) is a locally celebrated photographer and activist. Since her degree in Commercial Advertising from historic and now closed Brooks Institute of photography, Magdalena has devoted herself to fine art and activism but makes her living as a commercial photographer internationally. Her work has evolved from the celebration of the feminine form to more inclusive representations of race and body beauty. Her work has been recognized by the International Photo Awards, The Hallmark hall of Fame, the Pen Women of America. Her self-portrait titled ‘My Ophilia”, has a home in the permanent collection of the Steinbeck Museum. She is a board member for the Weston Collective, a non-profit that has given over $100,000 in grants for high school and college level photography students for traditional darkroom photography on the Monterey Peninsula.  She is also a founding member of the Juneteenth Coalition, which was founded in 2020 and already has given grants to the NAACP youth chapter and started a college scholarship fund through the Monterey Peninsula Community Foundation.

Michelle Magdalena has several limited edition portfolios for collectors and produced and sold 1,000 copies of an annual arts-activism journal titled BOHYPSIAN in winter of 2019. The publication, which has rebranded to Magdalena Magazine, is due to be released May of 2022. The journal was created to make her art more available to the public and give a home to her documentary works and activist community for healing and social evolution.

Michelle Magdalena is a German citizen, holding both passports and lives in Pacific Grove, California but also travels home to see family in the Black Forest of Germany regularly.