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 will be the first U.S. overview of the work of this major American photographer, and will be 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.
Past Tour Venue
Hood Museum of Art (Dartmouth College) | Hanover, 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
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
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
Return to Masaya, Nicaragua, July 2004, from the "Reframing History" series, 2004
© Susan Meiselas/Magnum
Memorial site for the Barzan tribe members who were disappeared and executed during the Anfal campaign, Barzan region, Northern Iraq, 2007
© Susan Meiselas/Magnum
