Melissa Shook
{{Short description|American photographer (1939–2020)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Melissa Shook
| image = Photo of Melissa Shook.jpg
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1939|4|18|mf=y}}
| birth_place = New York, New York
| death_date = {{death date and age|2020|8|27|1939|4|18|mf=y}}
| death_place = Chelsea, Massachusetts
| nationality = American
| education = Bard College, Art Students League of New York
| field = Photography
| training =
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| website = {{URL|melissashook.com}}
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}}
Melissa Shook (April 18, 1939 – August 27, 2020) was an American documentary photographer, artist and educator. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and is held in the collection there, as well as at the Center for Creative Photography, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm.{{cite web|accessdate=2021-04-25|title=Melissa Shook|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/5407|website=The Museum of Modern Art}}{{cite web |url=https://ccp.arizona.edu/sites/ccp.cals.arizona.edu/files/finding-aid-pdfs/ag224_shook_1.pdf |title=Finding aid for the Melissa Shook Collection, n.d. AG 224 |website=ccp.arizona.edu |date=June 2016 |publisher=Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona}}{{cite web |accessdate=2021-04-25|title=Melissa Shook – Artists/Makers – The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art|url=https://art.nelson-atkins.org/people/14066/melissa-shook |website=art.nelson-atkins.org}}{{Cite web |title=Works – Melissa Shook – Artists – Moderna Museet |url=https://sis.modernamuseet.se/en/people/2818/melissa-shook/objects |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=sis.modernamuseet.se}}
Life and work
Shook was born in New York City on April 18, 1939. She studied at Bard College and the Art Students League of New York.{{cite web |title=Melissa Shook Obituary (1939 - 2020) Boston Globe |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/melissa-shook-obituary?id=2272237 |website=Legacy |access-date=19 July 2021}} Shook taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Creative Photo Lab in 1974, and at the University of Massachusetts Boston from 1975 to 2005.{{cite web|accessdate=2021-04-25|title=Melissa Shook, 1939–2020 – Art New England|date=14 January 2021 |url=https://artnewengland.com/melissa-shook-1939-2020/}} Her subjects included her daughter; a series of daily self-portraits; a shelter for homeless men and women; and a wheelchair basketball team.{{cite web|accessdate=2021-04-25|title=Melissa Shook|url=https://collection.lightwork.org/Detail/artist/Shook%252C%2520Melissa|website=collection.lightwork.org}}{{Cite web |date=2024-03-12 |title=This Artist Took One Self-Portrait Every Day in 1970s New York |url=https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/15494/melissa-shook-photographer-daily-self-portrait-series-exhibition-book-new-york |access-date=2025-02-02 |website=AnOther |language=en}}{{cite web|accessdate=2021-04-25|title=Moderna Museet Collection|url=https://www.modernamuseet.se/stockholm/en/exhibitions/francesca-woodman/photography-from-the-collection/|website=Moderna Museet}}
Publications
- Streets are for Nobody: Homeless Women Speak. Boston: Boston Center for the Arts, 1991. With Jane Peterson.
- My Suffolk Downs. Pressed Wafer, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0975323762}}. Poetry and photography.
- He Says, She Says, I Say, and Nobody Tells the Truth, Whatever That Is, on the Backside of Suffolk Downs: a narrative by Melissa Shook. WordTech, 2014. {{ISBN|978-1625490797}}.
- Daily Self-Portraits 1972–1973. TBW Books, 2023. {{ISBN|978-1942953616 }}.
Group exhibitions
- Recent Acquisitions, 1974–1976, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1976{{cite news|first1=Hilton|last1=Kramer|accessdate=2021-04-25|title=Art View|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/04/archives/art-view-anxiety-about-the-museumization-of-photography.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=4 July 1976|issn=0362-4331}}
- Pictures by Women: a History of Modern Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010/11{{cite news|first1=Holland|last1=Cotter|accessdate=2021-04-24|title=A Gathering of Women With Cameras|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/arts/design/28women.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=27 May 2010|issn=0362-4331}}
Collections
Shook's work is held in the following permanent collections:
- Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Arizona: 83 prints (as of June 2016)
- International Center of Photography, New York: 1 print (as of April 2021){{cite web |accessdate=2021-04-25 |title=Melissa Shook |url=https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/melissa-shook |date=19 September 2019 |website=International Center of Photography}}
- Light Work, Syracuse, New York: 8 prints (as of April 2021)
- Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO: 208 prints (as of April 2021)
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 2 prints (as of April 2021){{cite web|title=[Statue with Clasped Hands]|accessdate=2021-04-25|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/261142|website=www.metmuseum.org}}{{cite web |title=[Girl in Clogs with Plants] |accessdate=2021-04-25 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/261143 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}
- Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden: numerous prints (as of 3 February 2025)
- Museum of Modern Art, New York: 37 prints (as of April 2021)
References
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Category:21st-century American photographers
Category:20th-century American photographers
Category:American women photographers
Category:Photographers from Massachusetts
Category:21st-century American women artists
Category:20th-century American women
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