Salvation Army Day Care

Melissa Shook’s portraits and interviews of women in homeless shelters arose from her experiences volunteering at women’s shelters in Boston. In 1992, two Cleveland social service agencies, the Federation for Community Planning and Cleveland Health Care for the Homeless, invited her to photograph women in Cleveland shelters. Her images reveal the challenges these women face, their resilience and determination to rebuild their lives, and the societal and personal cost of homelessness.

A vertically oriented black-and-white photograph depicts a child with a medium skin tone sitting on the edge of a sandbox. They have short, messy dark hair and look toward us with their mouth slightly open. They hold a large, scuffed soccer ball with both hands. In the background, toy trucks sit in the sand and a chain-link fence stands behind them. Sunlight from our right casts a dark shadow to our left.

Salvation Army Day Care

1989

Melissa Shook

(American, 1939–2020)

America

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