Stephen Shames (born 1947, in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

) is an American

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

who for over 50 years has used his photography to raise awareness of social issues, with a particular focus on child poverty, solutions to child poverty, and race. He testified about child poverty to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

in 1986. Shames was named a

Purpose Prize The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a philanthropic organization that reflects the ideas of its founder, John Templeton, who became wealthy via a career as a contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in religious an ...

Fellow in 2010 by Encore.org for his work helping

AIDS orphan An AIDS orphan is a child who became an orphan because one or both parents died from AIDS. In statistics from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UN ...

s and former

child soldier Children (defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child as people under the age of 18) have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures. Children in the military, includ ...

s in Africa.

Photography

Shames is the author of fifteen photography book monographs, including: ''Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party'' (ACC Art Books, 2022) co-authored with

Ericka Huggins Ericka Huggins ( Jenkins; born January 5, 1948) is an American activist, writer, and educator. She is a former leading member of the political organization, Black Panther Party (BPP). She was married to fellow BPP member John Huggins in 1968. ...

,''Stephen Shames, Une Retrospective'' (Maison de la Photographie Robert Doisneau de Gentilly), ''Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers'' (Abrams, 2016), co-authored with

Bobby Seale Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an American political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton. Founded as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", ...

, ''Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America'' (Aperture), ''Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed''(Aperture), ''The Black Panthers'' (Aperture), ''Bronx Boys'' (University of Texas Press, 2014), ''Facing Race'', ''Free to Grow'', and ''Transforming Lives''; and an electronic book ''Bronx Boys'' (FotoEvidence, 2011). Shames wrote and directed two videos: ''Friends of the Children'' and ''Children of Northern Uganda''. Shames is represented in the United States by Steven Kasher in New York City. Shames is represented in Europe by the Galerie Esther Woerdehoff in Paris and Geneva. He is affiliated with Polaris Images photo agency in New York. Shames’ images are in the permanent collections of 40 international museums and collection, including: the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York;

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York;

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

, New York; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.;

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History is an organized research unit and public service component of the University of Texas at Austin named for Dolph Briscoe, the 41st governor of Texas. The center collects and preserves documents and ar ...

at the University of Texas, Austin, Texas;

Museum of Photographic Arts The Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) is a museum in San Diego's Balboa Park. First founded in 1974, MOPA opened in 1983. University of California's

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

, Berkeley;

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast of the United Sta ...

;

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

;

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, San Francisco; the

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...

, New York; the

National Museum of African American History and Culture The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was established in December 2003 and opened its permanent home in ...

, Washington, DC; and the Foundation Sindika Dokolo, Luanda, Angola. Shames has exhibited at Kyotographie International Photography Festival, Kyoto, Japan; Metropolitan Museum of Art;

; National Portrait Gallery;

; Pingyao International Photo Festival, Pingyao, China;

Photo London Photo London is an annual photography event held at Somerset House in London in May.Photo London
. ...

;

Paris Photo Paris Photo is an annual international art fair dedicated to photography. It was founded in 1997, and is held in November at the Grand Palais exhibition hall and museum complex, located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement in Par ...

; Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz in Arles; National Park Service on Alcatraz Island; Musée Nicéphore-Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saône, France; Maison de la photographie Robert Doisneau, Gentilly, France; Du Sable Museum of African American History, Chicgao; International Center of Photography, New York; Oakland Museum of CA; Sam Jose Museum of Art;

Aperture Foundation Aperture Foundation is a nonprofit arts institution, founded in 1952 by Ansel Adams, Minor White, Barbara Morgan, Dorothea Lange, Nancy Newhall, Beaumont Newhall, Ernest Louie, Melton Ferris, and Dody Warren. Their vision was to create a forum fo ...

; CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, Spain; Chop Museum, National University of Mexico, Mexico City; Slavery & Justice Center, Brown University, Providence; Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, New Brunswick, NJ; Bozar/Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels; and scores of other venues. All of Shames' negatives and contact sheets, notes, and 1,000 prints are housed at the

at the University of Texas, Austin. He has received the Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism, and awards from Leica, International Center of Photography,

Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism is a journalism award named after Robert F. Kennedy and awarded by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The annual awards are issued in several categories and were est ...

s, World Press, and the New York Art Director's Club, American Photo / Pop Photo named Shames one of the 15 most underrated masters of photography.

Child poverty work

From 1984 to 1989, with support from the

Children's Defense Fund The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on child advocacy and research. It was founded in 1973 by Marian Wright Edelman. History The CDF was founded in 1973, citi ...

and the

Alicia Patterson Foundation The Alicia Patterson Foundation (APF) program was established in 1965 in memory of Alicia Patterson Alicia Patterson (October 15, 1906 – July 2, 1963) was an American journalist, the founder and editor of ''Newsday''. With Neysa McMein, she cre ...

, Shames traveled across America photographing the lives of the one out of five children in the United States who live below the poverty line. The photographs were published by ''

Aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

'' in 1991 as ''Outside the Dream'' with an introduction by

Jonathan Kozol Jonathan Kozol (born September 5, 1936) is an American writer, progressive activist, and educator, best known for his books on public education in the United States. Education and experience Born to Harry Kozol and Ruth (Massell) Kozol, Jonat ...

. Shames' work documenting child poverty was also featured in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', as well as the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''. Senator

Bill Bradley William Warren Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American politician and former professional basketball player. He served three terms as a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey (1979–1997). He ran for the Democratic Party's nomination f ...

said about the work: “Just as Walker Evans’ photographs helped America see the poverty of

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

, the vivid images in ''Outside the Dream'' will open our hearts to the deprivation that today afflicts not a region, but an entire generation.” In 1993, copies of ''Outside the Dream'' were distributed to every member of Congress, the governors of all 50 states, selected state legislators, and the chief executive officers of the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

companies. From 1994 to 1996, with support from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

and the

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation is a private foundation founded in 1926 by Charles Stewart Mott of Flint, Michigan. Mott was a leading industrialist in Flint through his association with General Motors. The foundation administers funds thr ...

, Shames worked on a follow-up project to ''Outside the Dream'' that focused on community solutions to child poverty in America. The work was published in 1997 as ''Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed'' and includes a preface by

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...

. Shames traveled across America documenting families participating in neighborhood programs where parents were empowered to learn the skills they needed to become better parents, get better jobs, and become role models for their children. President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

wrote about the book: “Stephen Shames has captured the spirit of thousands of programs across our country that are quietly but stubbornly making the lives of children and families better in spite of the bleak circumstances in which they live. … This book can inspire all of us to seek out the many opportunities already available in their own communities to make a difference in the lives of others.”

Humanitarian work in Africa

In 2006, Shames founded L.E.A.D Uganda, an NGO in Africa that locates forgotten children (AIDS orphans, former child soldiers, child laborers, and children living in Internally Displaced Person camps) and molds them into leaders by sending them to the best schools and colleges. One of the students was highlighted in a

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC (company), IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People ...

feature in 2007. In 2012 Shames retired as executive director and returned to photography full-time.

Current Work: Exhibits, Books, and Climate Change

Shames is currently working on exhibitions and books highlighting his previous work including the 1960s, Children & Youth, and a Retrospective. In 2018 Shames produced The Water Bottle Project, a set of 42 glass water bottles with photographs on the labels. The idea of the Water Bottle Project is to create an art object that will remind us of the importance of water to our lives and the life of our planet. Labels featuring photographs of water use around the world on water bottles contrast images of water use with bottled water as an expensive commodity. Without water we die—along with all land based plants and animals. Today access to clean water is in jeopardy. Today approximately one billion people lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. It will get worse. By 2025 more than half of the people of the world will face water vulnerability. The Water Bottle Project creates an art object that reminds us we need to take action.

Books

* "Comrade Sisters: Women of the BlackPanther Party" (ACC Art Books 2022 ) * "Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers" (Abrams, 2016) * "Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America" (

1991) * "Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed" (Aperture 1997) * "Bronx Boys" (University of Texas Press, 2014) * "The Black Panthers" (Aperture 2006) * "Facing Race" (Moravian College, 2008) * "Stephen Shames,Une Retrospective" (Maison de la Photographie Robert Doisneu de Gentilly , Red Eye, 2017) * "Some People" (Quiddity, 2021) * "from the 4 corners of the earth: Multiracial Americans" (Quiddity, 2021) * "We Are America" (Quiddity 2021)* "Free to Grow" (Columbia University, 2003) * "Transforming Lives" (Star Bright Books 2009) * "Bronx Boys" electronic book (FotoEvidence, 2013)

References