Photography Monographs On Social Issues By Stephen Shames

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.”
Humanitarian work in Africa
In 2006, Shames founded L.E.A.D Uganda, an NGO in Africa that locates forgotten children (AIDS orphans, former child soldiers, child laborers, and children living in Internally Displaced Person camps) and molds them into leaders by sending them to the best schools and colleges. Today, Shames devotes most of his time to fundraising for the Stephen Shames Foundation which does business as L.E.A.D Uganda and photographing the program’s 100-plus student members. One of the students was highlighted in a People Magazine feature in 2007.