HOME | Melba Levick

This website makes Melba’s extensive body of work readily available for print and publication orders.

Melba Levick’s photography has been exhibited, published and licensed for publication for over 3 decades. She has 60 plus photographic books to her credit, mostly in the domains of architecture, décor, travel and gardens. She has worked with the finest publishers in the world: Rizzoli Internl (NYC), Chronicle Books (San Francisco) and Ediciones Polgrafa (Spain), as well as most recently, art book publisher Nazraeli Press. Her fine arts photography has been exhibited in galleries internationally.

In 2009, for her two books on India: “India Sublime” and “Indiacolor”, Melba was awarded “best photographer of India in the world” by the Indian government’s Ministry of Tourism .

Photo by Dolors Porredon

Melba's Latest Books

click any book cover for full gallery; click any title for book purchase

Mission San Miguel Archangel - Nazraeli Press

Unlike many of the other missions in California, Mission San Miguel's appearance is much the same as it was when founded. The inside of the mission has never been repainted; the pictures and the colors decorating the six-food thick adobe walls are the originals that were created and painted by Indian artisans under the direction of Esteban Munras of Catalonia, Spain.

The physical beauty of the structures and gardens are unparalleled, and while Mission San Miguel is of course included in the numerous books about California’s twenty-one missions, it is in many ways to be the “poor stepson” of the chain; until now has not been the subject of a dedicated book.

Mission San Miguel Arcangel, with gorgeous photographs by renowned architectural and travel photographer Melba Levick, is beautifully printed on special uncoated art paper and housed in a 3-panel cover of oxblood colored cloth. A beautiful object in its own right, this book will be an important addition to the literature already available on California’s missions, while serving as an invaluable resource to architects, archaeologists and historians.

68 pages, 41 four-color plates, hardcover (Swiss-bound with exposed thread), special 3-panel binding.

The California Missions - Rizzoli
Magical spaces rich in history, the missions of California, featured here in all-new photography, invite reverie and hint of romance. The twenty-one missions of California, from San Diego to San Francisco Solano, are historic treasures and sites of pilgrimage for visitors from the world over.

Intrinsically beautiful structures typically built of adobe brick and wood, adorned with towers, domes, whitewashed stucco, often surrounded by lush gardens, the missions are at the very heart of California. Established by Spanish padres, built by Native Californians, and preserved and restored by historians and architects, California's missions are unique monuments to the region's early American Indian and European histories. This colorful, informative exploration of all twenty-one missions, each with its own rich story to tell, journeys along the historic Camino Real, from Mission Dolores with its flower-strewn courtyard gardens, in San Francisco, to San Juan Capistrano, famous for the swallows that flock to its inviting grounds. With lush photography that captures the missions' details so splendidly, this is the perfect book for mission visitors and lovers of their strong and simple forms.

Ranches - Rizzoli
The romantic and intriguing homes set in the idyllic landscapes of the great California ranches. The lure of the West has been strong in American history, representing the promise of beautiful, wild landscapes, broad vistas, clean air, and bright skies.

Set on this magnificent land are the homes and their interiors—from the 150-year-old Rancho Camulos of Ramona fame to Jack London's Beauty Ranch on the slopes of Sonoma Mountain to the working ranches of today.

Ranches: Home on the Range in California presents an expression of a lifestyle steeped in self-sufficiency, love of the land, and unpretentiousness. Located in dramatic landscapes of rolling hills, upon the sides of mountains, or in vast plains bordered by snow-capped mountains, the featured homes demonstrate archetypal types—from the Spanish-style hacienda form of historic Rancho Camulos, with its open porch and broad eaves, to the New England clapboard traditional, as seen in Jack London's Beauty Ranch. At once a tribute to a historic form and a fading way of life, as well as a celebration of renewal, architectural beauty, and the romance of the West, this book offers the reader an immersive experience of living on the land.

Dreaming Small - Rizzoli
The masterpieces of small-house living featured here will serve as inspiration to those who struggle with the challenges presented by contemporary life in petite-size homes. Dreaming Small is a celebration of jewel-box homes, each marked by a sense of style that marries eclecticism, practicality, beauty, and livability.

In brilliant new photography, the book explores the possibilities that exist in these mostly unpublished gems by legendary architects Irving Gill, Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, and Paul R. Williams, among others. The houses, each under two thousand square feet, are examples of what is possible in the small house and offer the reader a colorful palette of ideas from which to artfully transform spaces into comfortable, contemporary living.

The Californis Casa - Rizzoli
This sumptuous and comprehensive volume embraces one of the most beloved house forms, the Spanish Colonial Revival, presenting at once a lavish portrait of the style as well as the definitive statement on the subject through more than three hundred color photographs.

The Spanish style in architecture encompasses facets from a vast array of traditions, many of which are in evidence in these extraordinary houses. Elements include thickset, whitewashed stucco walls, deeply recessed doors, lushly planted courtyard gardens, intricate and colorful tile work, telescoping towers inset with Juliet balconies, elaborately traced wrought-iron window grilles, and richly appointed interiors heightened by drama in light and shadow cast by moody pendant lamps and low-burning fires.

The houses featured are the very best of the type, both famous and little-known, and showcase the work of architects such as George Washington Smith, Bertram Goodhue, Wallace Neff, and Paul Williams, from the early twentieth century, to the work of contemporary practitioners, including Marc Appleton, Michael Burch Architects, and others. These homes are a fantasy for living made real in the Southern California sun.

South India A Mosaic - Roli Books
Between the Malabar and Coromandel Coast lie the Southern states of India, once collectively known as Dravida, derived from the Sanskrit word drava (sea). Journey through swaying palm tress and lush waterways, snake shrines and tea plantations shrouded in mist.

These visual treats are just a few examples of what South India has to offer..

Classic Homes of Los Angeles - Rizzoli
A luxurious showcase of the finest homes in the oldest neighborhoods of Los Angeles and environs. This volume offers an exclusive look into the classic homes and gardens in the legendary neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles. Famed for its lavish homes and celebrity residents,one finds here a panorama of richly detailed architectural styles,from Victorian, Tudor, and Georgian,to Spanish Colonial, Art Deco, and Streamline Moderne. Shown here is the estate of the great Hollywood producer and director Cecil B. DeMille, the former Danny Kaye house in Beverly Hills, and the wonderful Arts and Crafts masterwork by Greene and Greene—the Gamble House—in Pasadena. These works and others illustrate the wide range of period-revival styles popular in Southern California during its "Golden Age of Expansion" from 1899 to 1938. Lush, all-new color photographs capture the grandeur of these homes and their exquisite gardens in the present day.

Indiacolor - Chronicle Books

Color captures the bright hues and beautiful patterns of this diverse nation, offering a treasury of furniture, textiles, jewelry, clothing, and architecture, along with marketplaces, artists, and even animals. Vibrant, inspirational, and bursting with fascinating details, IndiaColor is a journey between two covers.

The Spanish Style House, From Enchanted Andalusia to the California Dream - Rizzoli

The great appeal of Spanish Style homes lies in their aura of romance and drama, a sense of story, of magic, as well as in their very comfortable and engaging proportions and the great livability of the interior spaces. Deep shadow, arched doorways, trickling courtyard fountains, climbing bougainvillea on wrought-iron window grilles, wood-beamed ceilings, and white-plaster walls are all hallmarks of the style. Here, through a celebration of contemporary and historic homes in Southern California, as well as existing historic precedents in Andalusia, Spain—most notably the intricately detailed Casa de Pilatos in Seville and the Alhambra of Granada—The Spanish Style House presents the definitive picture of the style as it exists today.

*NEW! Casa Santa Fe: Design, Style, Art, and Tradition - Rizzoli

Desert hues, natural materials, thick hand-plastered walls, and adobe brick construction are hallmarks of the Santa Fe Style, which is as much an expression in architecture, interior design, art, and crafts as it is a way of life. Rooted in a sense of earthy comfort inspired by its history, the surrounding desert, and Native American and Hispanic design influences, the style has a timeless appeal and vibrant ongoing life that has resulted in these extraordinary homes.

With features such as eighteenth-century peeled vigas, tin chandeliers, romantic iron sconces, and hand-hewn wood-beamed ceilings, each house is a rich yet harmonious invitation that will engage the senses and speak to the soul. Beyond the houses, the writer and photographer spotlight those details and spaces that together convey the magic of this very special place, including patios and gardens; fireplaces, kivas, and hornos; ceramics; Native American arts; cabinets and trasteros; folk art; and weaving.

Casa Santa Fe is the definitive sourcebook for architects, designers, builders, homeowners, and interior decorators seeking to expand their visual repertoire of historically defined and classically inspired architectural details and interior appointments.