For almost six decades,
Stephen Shames has documented the world as an award-winning photojournalist. Through his photography, he uncovers the raw emotions and deeper truths behind both global, political issues and private, personal ones. From chronicling the Black Panther movement in Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers, to exposing the silent crisis of child poverty in Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America, Shames’ work consistently highlights the humanity at the heart of struggle and survival.
In Stephen Shames:
A Lifetime in Photography, Kehrer Verlag presents a comprehensive collection of Shames’ life's work, featuring iconic images as well as many previously unpublished photographs. While Shames has photographed a vast array of subjects—from political leaders to ordinary people across diverse cultures—a unifying thread runs through his photos: an exploration of what divides and unites us. His images of children and families reveal stories of violence, abuse, love, hope, and transcendence, offering a window into the complexities of the human experience.
In this stunning volume Shames invites the reader to embark on an emotional journey through his photography, where the power of his images continue to inspire reflection and empathy.
From the introduction by Stephen Shames:
The great thing about being a photojournalist is your camera is a ticket to go anywhere. Whether photographing the mundane or the dangerous, I try to convey pure emotion in my pictures, to get behind the scenes, to find a different angle so my pictures reveal what is beneath the surface. Having a distinct vision allows a photographer to be more poetic. While my work fits into the documentary tradition, it is also about the edges of experience, where things are more ambiguous and non-rational: the inner moments, where public events meet our private fears and hopes. This, in my opinion, is where the action is, the place of art.
From the essay by Jeffrey Henson Scales:
This book is not a survey nor is it structured with a narrative arc. It is more a collage of Shames’ life as a photographer, a mashup of his life’s work. Documentary photography by its very nature is constructed of people, places, and things the artist finds in their camera’s viewfinder. Like the many artists throughout the history of modern art who have created assemblages of found objects, this book similarly takes the images Shames has created over decades and remixes them here to present a nonlinear view of his own life in photography … The result is a visual journey that, like a billiards break shot, sends us scattering across the globe.
From the Introduction by Stephen Shames:
Photographing is an intense occupation. To get good photographs you must insert yourself into other people’s lives. To do that you need to earn their trust and form a deep relationship with them. My friend, photographer Lydia Panas, says she ends up “in love” with the people she photographs. I feel the same way. I am passionate about the people and scenes I photograph. What I see affects me deeply. As you look through these pages, I hope these photographs touch your emotions and move you to cry and laugh. Please walk with me. Share my journey.
About the Artist:
Stephen Shames (b. 1947, in Cambridge, Massachusetts) is an American photojournalist who for nearly 60 years has used his photography to raise awareness of social issues, with a particular focus on child poverty, solutions to child poverty, and racism. Shames was named a Purpose Prize Fellow in 2010 by Encore.org for his work helping AIDS orphans and former child soldiers in Africa. His photographs have been published and exhibited widely and are included in 42 permanent collections of renowned institutions, including the MoMA, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the George Eastman Museum, Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to name a few.
About Jeffrey Henson Scales:
Jeffrey Henson Scales is an independent photographer, whose photographs have been published and exhibited widely and are included in numerous permanent collections of many renowned museums. He is also an award-winning New York Times photography editor who has been co-editor of the annual Year in Pictures special section for over fifteen years. He also created and curated the award-winning New York Times photography column, “Exposures.”
