Melissa Shook Explained

Melissa Shook
Birth Date:	April 18, 1939
Birth Place:	New York, New York
Death Place:	Chelsea, Massachusetts
Nationality:	American
Education:	Bard College, Art Students League of New York
Field:	Photography

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 held in the collection there^[1] and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York^[2] and Moderna Museet in Stockholm,^[3]

Life and work

Shook was born in New York, New York on April 18, 1939. She studied at Bard College and the Art Students League of New York.^[4] Shook taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Creative Photo Lab in 1974, and at the University of Massachusetts Boston from 1975 to 2005.^[5] Her subjects included her daughter; a series of daily self-portraits; a shelter for homeless men and women; and a wheelchair basketball team.^[6] She died in Chelsea, Massachusetts on August 27, 2020.^[4]

Publications

• Streets are for Nobody: Homeless Women Speak. Boston: Boston Center for the Arts, 1991. With Jane Peterson.
• My Suffolk Downs. Pressed Wafer, 2012. . 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. .
• Daily Self-Portraits 1972-1973. TBW Books, 2023. .

Group exhibitions

• Recent Acquisitions, 1974–1976, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1976^[7]
• Pictures by Women: a History of Modern Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010/11^{[1] [8]}

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)^[9]
• International Center of Photography, New York: 1 print (as of April 2021)^[10]
• Light Work, Syracuse, New York: 8 prints (as of April 2021)^[6]
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO: 208 prints (as of April 2021)^[11]
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 2 prints (as of April 2021)^{[2] [12]}
• Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden^[3]
• Museum of Modern Art, New York: 37 prints (as of April 2021)^[1]

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2021-04-25. Melissa Shook. The Museum of Modern Art.
2. Web site: [Statue with Clasped Hands]]. 2021-04-25. www.metmuseum.org.
3. Web site: 2021-04-25. Moderna Museet Collection. Moderna Museet.
4. Web site: Melissa Shook Obituary (1939 - 2020) Boston Globe . Legacy . 19 July 2021.
5. Web site: 2021-04-25. Melissa Shook, 1939–2020 – Art New England. 14 January 2021 .
6. Web site: 2021-04-25. Melissa Shook. collection.lightwork.org.
7. News: Hilton. Kramer. 2021-04-25. Art View. The New York Times. 4 July 1976. 0362-4331.
8. News: Holland. Cotter. 2021-04-24. A Gathering of Women With Cameras. The New York Times. 27 May 2010. 0362-4331.
9. Web site: Finding aid for the Melissa Shook Collection, n.d. AG 224 . ccp.arizona.edu . June 2016 . Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona.
10. Web site: 2021-04-25 . Melissa Shook . 19 September 2019 . International Center of Photography.
11. Web site: 2021-04-25. Melissa Shook – Artists/Makers – The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. art.nelson-atkins.org.
12. Web site: [Girl in Clogs with Plants] ]. 2021-04-25 . www.metmuseum.org.