Merciline: A Life in Full
2025
Merciline: A Life in Full follows the life and final years of Merciline “Mama” Melbourne in Buff Bay, Jamaica, photographed between 2022 and 2025. What began as interviews conducted by her grandson, rooted in a return to the family home, became both a personal excavation and an act of archival preservation. The conversations were made to safeguard Mama’s memories for future generations, especially those who will know her only through what remains.
The work grew into a visual record of a woman who shaped family life through resilience, discipline, and self-reliance. Guided not by ambition for status or advancement, but by one clear dream, that her children surpass the limits life placed on her, Mama built a life defined by labor and authority. Through photographs, personal recollections, and family testimony, the project presents her with dignity and unembellished truth: her sharp wit, her independence, and the pride with which she carried her work. Mama is not framed simply as a subject, but as a matriarch and storyteller, and a lasting emblem of Caribbean womanhood.
“I grew up well. I know how to cook, wash, clean the house, and shine a floor so well you could comb your hair in its reflection. I never wanted to work in the market or on the farm. Domestic work was what I loved, and people respected me for it. Police officers and firefighters were some of my clients.
I bought what I needed, and I've never been into material things. I don’t envy anybody for what they have. Whatever I didn’t have, I learned to live without. And I’m not into gossip either. I don’t want anybody stressing me out with lies, so I keep far from people who talk too much.
I grew up with good manners, and I carried that with me all my life. Money is necessary, yes, but manners and respect will take you further. Simple things, like helping an old lady cross the street… those are the things that help you go through life.”
