Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is holding a solo exhibition of Melissa Shook's work entitled “To Prove that I Exist”: Melissa Shook’s Daily Self-Portraits, 1972–1973. The exhibition is on view from March 9 through August 4, 2024.
In December of 1972, photographer Melissa Shook (1939–2020) assigned herself a personal, artistic challenge: to take self-portraits every day for a year, in her own words, “to prove that I exist.” Struggling with self-identity and unreliable childhood memories, Shook undertook this conceptual exercise to see if she could remember to take pictures every day. The days she failed to photograph herself became just as important as the days she succeeded, resulting in a singular body that powerfully conveys Shook’s relationship with memory, family, her body, and her sense of self. As both photographer and subject, Shook explored the dynamics of durational self-portraiture on both sides of her camera’s lens. The collective portrait that emerges conveys the vibrancy of Shook’s creative imagination, as she explores the intersecting facets of her identity as a woman, a mother, and an artist.
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