Stephen Shames
Encyclopedia
Stephen Shames is a veteran American photojournalist who for over 40 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
in 1986. Shames was named a Purpose Prize Fellow in 2010 by Civic Ventures for his work helping AIDS orphan
s and former child soldiers in Africa as founder of the Stephen Shames Foundation/L.E.A.D Uganda.
1991), Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed (Aperture 1997), The Black Panthers (Aperture 2006), Transforming Lives: Turning Uganda’s Forgotten Children Into Leaders (Star Bright Books 2009), and Bronx Boys (FotoEvidence, 2011). Shames wrote and directed two videos: Friends of the Children and Children of Northern Uganda. He produced a video with Ascencion Films: Sanyu & Ronald. Shames is affiliated with Polaris Images photo agency in New York.
Shames’s images are in the permanent collections of the International Center of Photography
, New York; National Portrait Gallery
, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Photographic Arts
, San Diego; University of California’s Bancroft Library
, Berkeley; San Jose Museum of Art
; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He is represented by and has had two solo shows at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York. 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
s, World Press, and the New York Art Director’s Club.
and the Alicia Patterson Foundation
, 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 1991 in a book entitled Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America with an introduction by Jonathan Kozol
.
Shames' work documenting child poverty was also featured in the New York Times,
as well as the Los Angeles Times
.
Senator Bill Bradley
said the following about the work, “Just as Walker Evans’ photographs helped America see the poverty of Appalachia
, 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
companies.
From 1994 to 1996, with support from the Ford Foundation
and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
, 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 by Aperture in 1997 in a book entitled Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed and includes a preface by Michael Jordan
. 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
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.”
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
in 1986. Shames was named a Purpose Prize Fellow in 2010 by Civic Ventures for his work helping AIDS orphan
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 , the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund , the term is used for a child whose mother has died due to AIDS before...
s and former child soldiers in Africa as founder of the Stephen Shames Foundation/L.E.A.D Uganda.
Photography
Shames is the author of five photography monographs: Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America (ApertureAperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. The aperture determines how collimated the admitted rays are,...
1991), Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed (Aperture 1997), The Black Panthers (Aperture 2006), Transforming Lives: Turning Uganda’s Forgotten Children Into Leaders (Star Bright Books 2009), and Bronx Boys (FotoEvidence, 2011). Shames wrote and directed two videos: Friends of the Children and Children of Northern Uganda. He produced a video with Ascencion Films: Sanyu & Ronald. Shames is affiliated with Polaris Images photo agency in New York.
Shames’s images are in the permanent collections of the International Center of Photography
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, New York; National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery (United States)
The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in Washington, D.C., administered by the Smithsonian Institution. Its collections focus on images of famous individual Americans.-Building:...
, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Photographic Arts
Museum of Photographic Arts
The Museum of Photographic Arts or MoPA is a museum in San Diego’s Balboa Park. First founded in 1974, MoPA opened in 1983. MoPA is one of three museums in the US dedicated exclusively to the collection and preservation of photography, with a mission to inspire, educate and engage the broadest...
, San Diego; University of California’s Bancroft Library
Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library is the primary special collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired as a gift/purchase from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity...
, Berkeley; San Jose Museum of Art
San Jose Museum of Art
The San Jose Museum of Art is an art museum in Downtown San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1969, the museum hosts a large permanent collection emphasizing West Coast artists of the 20th- and 21st-century. It is located next to the Circle of Palms Plaza and Plaza de César Chávez...
; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He is represented by and has had two solo shows at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York. He has received the Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism, and awards from Leica
Leica
Leica Camera AG, a German optics company, produces Leica cameras. The predecessor of the company, formerly known as Ernst Leitz GmbH, is now three companies: Leica Camera AG, Leica Geosystems AG, and Leica Microsystems AG, producing cameras, geosurvey equipment, and microscopes, respectively...
, International Center of Photography, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award
Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award
The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism is journalisms 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 established in December 1968 by a group of reporters who...
s, World Press, and the New York Art Director’s Club.
Child poverty work
From 1984 to 1989, with support from the Children's Defense FundChildren's Defense Fund
The Children's Defense Fund is an American child advocacy and research group, founded in 1973 by Marian Wright Edelman. Its motto Leave No Child Behind reflects its mission to advocate on behalf of children...
and the Alicia Patterson Foundation
Alicia Patterson Foundation
The Alicia Patterson Foundation Program was established in 1965 in memory of Alicia Patterson, who was editor and publisher of Newsday for nearly 23 years before her death in 1963.-AFP Fellowship:...
, 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
Aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. The aperture determines how collimated the admitted rays are,...
in 1991 in a book entitled Outside the Dream: Child Poverty in America with an introduction by Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books on public education in the United States. Kozol graduated from Noble and Greenough School in 1954, and Harvard University summa cum laude in 1958 with a degree in English Literature. He was awarded a Rhodes...
.
Shames' work documenting child poverty was also featured in the New York Times,
as well as the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
.
Senator Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley
William Warren "Bill" Bradley is an American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former three-term Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2000 election.Bradley was born and raised in a suburb of St....
said the following about the work, “Just as Walker Evans’ photographs helped America see the poverty of Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
, 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
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
companies.
From 1994 to 1996, with support from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation is a charitable foundation founded in 1926 by Charles Stewart Mott of Flint, Michigan. Mott was the leading industrialist in Flint through his association with General Motors....
, 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 by Aperture in 1997 in a book entitled Pursuing the Dream: What Helps Children and Their Families Succeed and includes a preface by Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
. 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
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
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.”