In our mission to promote underexposed important photography artists, we will feature a duo presentation of works by Melissa Shook and Ken Ohara. From the 1970s on, both artists concentrated on human portraits, images of themselves, their family members and friends, as well as strangers they encountered in their own communities. Shook and Ohara, while they didn't know each other, both lived in New York City in the 1970s when they started innovative daily self-portrait projects.
Melissa Shook (1939 - 2020) began a personal documentary upon her daughter’s birth in 1965, and this year we promote the atmospheric self-portraits created in 1973 in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. We also introduce the images of her daughter Krissy whom she documented until Krissy turned 18, along with the evocative pinhole still lifes from the 1990s.
Ken Ohara (b. 1942) is known for his extremely cropped facial portraits of strangers which he first introduced in a telephone-directory-style publication. Each portrait was entitled ONE accompanied by the page number on which it appeared in the original publication. Ohara explored the subjects throughout the 1970s and 1990s to make an arresting grid/collage of human visages. We introduce these relatively unknown works with which he experimented in different scales and tones.
These works by Shook and Ohara rarely appear in the marketplace and would be valuable additions to any photography collection.
If you have any questions or requests, please contact us. During the fair, you can reach us at +1 917 805 5651. We look forward to seeing you at our booth #230.