The Lewis Baltz Library - Steidl

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.
Born in Baltimore in 1948, Meiselas has worked as a freelance photographer since joining Magnum Photos in 1976.
She was presented the Robert Capa Gold Medal for “outstanding courage and reporting” by the Overseas Press Club
in 1979, for her work in Nicaragua, later published in the 1981 book Nicaragua. She served as an editor and
contributor to the books El Salvador: The Work of Thirty Photographers (1983) and Chile from Within (1991).
Meiselas has also co-directed two films based on her involvement in Nicaragua, Living at Risk: The Story of a Nicaraguan
Family (1985) and Pictures from a Revolution (1991). In 1997, she completed a six-year project entitled Kurdistan: In
the Shadow of History—an exhibition, book, and website. Using a similar approach, Encounters with the Dani (2003)
pieces together a richly layered visual history of the Dani through the eyes of outsiders. Both projects examine
the relationship between power and representation and register a shift in her working process from
photographer to collector and curator. This book continues Meiselas’ experiments with the book form, exploring
unconventional narrative and design strategies, interweaving text, images, and archival documents to reveal the
different meanings contained in each.
Exhibition: International Center of Photography, 18 September, 2008 to 4 January, 2009
Susan Meiselas
In History
Texts by Susan Meiselas, Caroline Brothers, Edmundo Desnoes,
Elizabeth Edwards, David Levi Strauss, Lucy Lippard,
Kristen Lubben, Allan Sekula and Diana Taylor
Edited by Kristen Lubben
Book design by Bethany Johns
246 pages with 200 b/w and color plates
7 x 9.75 in./17.7 x 24.7 cm
Hardcover
US$50.00/£25.00/€35.00
ISBN 978-3-86521-685-4
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