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Traveling Exhibition

  • Susan Meiselas, Sandinistas at the walls of the Esteli National Guard headquarters, Esteli, Nicaragua, 1979 © Susan Meiselas/Magnum
  • Susan Meiselas, Arbil Taymour Abdullah, 15, the only survivor of mass execution, shows his wound, Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, December 1991 © Susan Meiselas/Magnum
  • Susan Meiselas, Photographs of 20-year-old Kamaran Abdullah Saber are held by his family at Saiwan Hill cemetery. He was killed in July 1991 during a student demonstration against Saddam Hussein, Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, 1991 © Susan Meiselas/Magnum
  • Susan Meiselas, Return to Masaya, Nicaragua, July 2004, from the "Reframing History" series, 2004 © Susan Meiselas/Magnum
  • Susan Meiselas, Memorial site for the Barzan tribe members who were disappeared and executed during the Anfal campaign, Barzan region, Northern Iraq, 2007 © Susan Meiselas/Magnum

Susan Meiselas: In History


Since the 1970s, questions of ethics raised by documentary practice have been central to debates in photography. Perhaps no other photographer has so closely and consistently represented and participated in these debates than Susan Meiselas. An American photographer best known for her work covering the political upheavals in Central America in the 1970s and '80s, Meiselas's process has evolved in radical and challenging ways as she has grappled with pivotal questions about her relationship to her subjects, the use and circulation of her images in the media, and the relationship of images to history and memory. Her insistent engagement with these concerns has positioned her as a leading voice in the debate on contemporary documentary practice. Susan Meiselas: In History is the first U.S. overview of the work of this major American photographer, and is structured around three key projects: Carnival Strippers (1972–76); Nicaragua (1978–present); and Kurdistan (1991–present). The exhibition was organized by Kristen Lubben, Associate Curator at ICP, and is accompanied by a catalogue including essays by Lucy Lippard, David Levi-Strauss, Elizabeth Edwards, and others.

Approximate running feet: 600

Content: over 120 photographs, 11 DVDs, 1 installation, 9 display cases for collected archival objects

For information about this traveling exhibition, please contact travelingexhibitions@icp.org or 212.857.9738.

Tour Venues

Hood Museum of Art | Dartmouth College, New Hampshire | April 10–June 20, 2010

La Virreina | Barcelona, Spain
  Kurdistan: July 6–October 10, 2010
  Carnival Strippers: November 30, 2010–January 30, 2011
  Nicaragua: March 1–June 12, 2011