Susan Meiselas
Born in 1948 · United States
Keeping images alive with their protagonists.
The story
Susan Meiselas develops documentary photography extended through testimony, archives and returns to places. From Carnival Strippers to Nicaragua, she questions the photographer’s position and the circulation of images. Her projects on Kurdistan and women’s refuges bring together collective histories and individual voices. Exhibitions and books become spaces where the people represented can regain a voice and a presence.
Understanding the work
Read photographs alongside documents and testimony. Distinguish the moment of exposure from the memory images construct through their different subsequent uses.
Key works and series
Carnival Strippers; Nicaragua; Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History; A Room of Their Own.
Sources & further exploration
Works in collections.
10 recordsPhotographs to explore on museum and library websites, with titles, dates and processes. Each link opens the collection record and its image where one is available.
- MoMA · 1973
Lawrence Changing the Record, Essex Junction, Vermont
Gelatin silver print, printed c. 2000
