Melissa Shook (1932-2020) was living on New York’s Lower East Side in the early 1970s when she began a project to record her daily existence. Much like Peggy Nolan’s pictures of her family home, life was a place of free expression.
“My earliest memories are of being photographed with my friends on the Lower East Side of Manhattan – running naked on the street or playing games in my friends’ apartments,” says Melissa’s daughter Kristina. “My mother Melissa chasing after us – not interrupting us – clicking away with her camera, an extension of her.”
Melissa Shook’s home was one of freedom. “Me and my friends ran around naked. We danced in lofts,” adds Kristina. “We had so much freedom. I would put paint on the wall and Melissa would say, ‘That’s beautiful!’”
When Melissa Shook’s mother died when she was just 12, the pain brought on traumatic amnesia. She forgot it all. Her portraits of her adult life mark memories and lay bare her existence.
She began her story of self when Kristina was 12, first photographing her daughter for the series Krissy, before turning the medium format camera on herself on 1 December 1972 (above). She continued to take one portrait a day until August 1973.
To Prove that I Exist: Melissa Shook’s Daily Self-Portraits, 1972-1973 is on show at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri until 8 August 2024. Daily Self-Portraits 1972–1973 is published by TBW Book. Her website is here.
Melissa Shook’s portraits were first shown in Daily Self-Portraits 1972–1973 in Kansas City, Missouri, and in the accompanying book of the same name.
Daily Self-Portraits 1972–1973 is published by TBW Book. Her website is here.
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