Melissa Shook: Krissy’s Present | Miyako Yoshinaga
Untitled (9th Street, N.Y. C.), ca. 1967. Gelatin silver print, 6 3/8 in x 9 5/8 in. (AP 1/2) (MSK67K0000701). Courtesy MIYAKO YOSHINAGA, New York.
Written by Makenna Karas
Photo Edited by Lyz Rider
Childhood falls like water through all of our hands, running away from us faster than we ever could have known. But for the late photographer Melissa Shook, that hazy era of innocence really did disappear in a wave of amnesia at the age of twelve when she watched her mother die. Childhood was simply there one minute and gone the next.
Nova Scotia, Canada, Thanksgiving 1974, 1974. Gelatin silver print, 6 1/4 x 6 1/8 in. (AP 1/2) (MSK74K0000501). Courtesy MIYAKO YOSHINAGA, New York.
Perhaps this grief and longing for her lost childhood drove Shook to document her daughter’s youth with religious devotion in the series titled “Krissy”. On display from December 8 through January 20 at Miyako Yoshinaga, the collection drips nostalgia as it catalogs Krissy evolving from a carefree child into a sophisticated young woman.
Untitled (Krissy in her grandparents' home, Milford, Connecticut), ca. 1968. Gelatin silver print, 9 3/8 x 5 7/8 in. (MSK68K00003). Courtesy MIYAKO YOSHINAGA, New York.
Beginning in 1967, Shook stands in the periphery with a camera, capturing the raw, naked emotion of Krissy’s youth with such grace that her daughter recounts memories of Shook “chasing after us – not interrupting us – clicking away with her camera…”. It seems that Shook was never interested in staging the scene or manipulating the muse, but rather in indulging her curiosity as to what constitutes that innocent era of life that fell out of her reach. This comes through beautifully in the untitled shot of Krissy standing naked on a table circa 1968. Instead of telling her to get down, put clothes on, or do anything that adults often do, Shook simply captures the whimsical moment. She stands in the background, gazing at this dancing child to allow her to keep dancing for as long as she desires.
Untitled (Cape Cod, Massachusetts), ca. 1971. Gelatin silver print, 7 x 7 in. (MSK71K0000100). Courtesy MIYAKO YOSHINAGA, New York.
This allowance for chaos continues throughout the series, appearing most obviously in “Krissy and Niki,” where naked children with smiles plastered on their faces run around a room of fallen furniture and scattered wooden boards. The shot invites you to view childhood as something that doesn’t need to be overly controlled or contained. Shook reveals raw, aching beauty in simply providing children with the space to be children. The real world will come soon enough.
Untitled (Krissy riding a tricycle), ca. 1970. Gelatin silver print, 6 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. (MSK70K0000200). Courtesy MIYAKO YOSHINAGA, New York.
This presentiment of change, of Krissy’s temporary innocence, haunts the entire collection, lurking in the background as something that the audience knows but that the little girl is still blissfully unaware of. Shook pays homage to this in the untitled shot of her daughter riding a tricycle, where Krissy’s girlish innocence is juxtaposed severely with the mature femininity of the nude woman. Krissy’s state of motion on the tricycle suggests transport, where girlhood is a place she is already pedaling away from, closer and closer to the womanhood represented by the model just in front of her.
November 1979, 1979. Titled on recto. Gelatin silver print, 7 1/4 x 7 1/4 in. (MSK79K00002). Courtesy MIYAKO YOSHINAGA, New York.
By the end of the series, Krissy has bridged that gap. The final shot captures her at eighteen, solemn and severe, staring at what the viewer can imagine as the realities of adulthood that she is just coming to understand. All innocence has been lost. You cannot help but grieve. Within an array of photos, Shook has explored the haunting story we all share, where innocence was there one moment and gone the next.
