"Your Eyes and Love in Grain and Shadow" : Melissa Shook Documentary Film Premiere at Photo London 2026
Schedule @ Screening Room
Wednesday, May 13, 13:00 — 13:20
Thursday, May 14, 14:00 — 14:20
Friday, May 15, 15:00 — 15:20
Saturday, May 16, 14:00 —14:20
Sunday, May 17, 15:00 — 15:20
Followed by
Walkthrough with Kristina Shook @ MIYAKO YOSHINAGA Booth G01
Kristina Shook, co-writer and narrator of the film, was the daughter, subject, and collaborator of Melissa Shook from the mid-1960s through the 1980s. Today, she is a writer and performance artist dedicated to preserving her mother’s legacy. Kristina (Krissy) will be delighted to walk visitors through the MIYAKO YOSHINAGA booth presentation of her mother’s photographs of their shared life, reflecting on what it meant to grow up under her mother’s constant yet loving gaze—something she always experienced as entirely natural.
Walkthrough Schedule
Wednesday, May 13, 13:30 —16:00
Thursday, May 14, 14:30 — 15:00
Friday, May 15, 15:30 — 16:00
Saturday, May 16, 14:30 —15:00
Sunday, May 17, 15:30 — 16:00
In the 1960s, long before selfies and iPhones, New York photographer Melissa Shook (1939–2020) was a white single mother living within a close-knit, multi-ethnic artist community on the Lower East Side. Quietly and urgently, she set about documenting the everyday life of her mixed daughter, Krissy. This short documentary weaves together Shook’s rarely seen photographs with only recently developed Super 8 footage, revealing an intimate memento of a mother-daughter bond.
While many male photographers of the 60s and 70s focused on more public, political themes and subjects they often didn’t know personally, Melissa Shook’s lens was up close and relational, feminist and domestic. Her photographs and snippets of film recordings were not only a way for her to navigate her private compulsions, and her profound experiences of love and loss; they were also a medium for her to preserve a vibrant living record of Krissy, her chosen family and community. Over time, Shook’s relentless urge to capture life became an unspoken artistic collaboration with Krissy, and we see how together they created a mosaic of tender, quirky, funny, painful and joyful
moments.
Your Eyes and Love in Grain and Shadow is a glimpse of girlhood, a vanished New York City era, and the early experiments of a remarkable female artist.
Release: Jan 2026 Run Time: 16 mins
Featuring: Melissa & Kristina Shook Narration: Kristina Shook
Photographs & Super 8: Melissa Shook
Director: Sarah Feinbloom
Producers: Sarah Feinbloom, Kristina Shook, S.C. Smith, Goro Toshima
Writers: Sarah Feinbloom, Kristina Shook & S.C. Smith
Music: Caroline Shaw, John Montgomery, Kaitlin Miller, Yeonsuk Jung