Susan Meiselas is an American photographer, Magnum member since 1976. She is well-known for her reportage of the insurrection in Nicaragua and her interests in human rights through her photography, especially in Latin America. She interrogates the photographer’s status and Western gaze, as a cultural contrast : the modern Western world is watching the most destitute in poor areas of the world.
HUMAN RIGHTS – GAZE – DOCUMENTARY – DISJUNCTURE
‘How is the photographer or ethnographer different from the tourist?
Might these pictures record and help the Dani remember the integrity of their indigenous culture? What do these pictures mean for them, as opposed to viewers who read them in the West?’
Early works
44 Irving St
About portrait, intimate space, neighborhood, writing x image, hidden story and narrative.
When I gave my subjects a print and asked them to write about how they saw themselves in her pictures, more often than not their words told a tale that the images alone did not relay.
Prince Street girls
Being teared apart between two countries and places of residence.
About growing up of teenager, as a street photographer, and secret friend crossing the forbidden road.
Example of detailed caption which clearly identified the subjects and set the scene (evidence of truth) : Jojo, Carol and Lisa on the corner of Prince and Mott streets, 1976
9/11
Beauty of Ground zero
Colors of the sky, sense of melancholia and romanticism vs violence of the attack (physically, ethical and symbol of USA)
Claire Barthelemy 