Essay On Susan Meselas

Susan Meiselas: An American Documentary Photographer

Susan Meiselas is an American-born documentary photographer, currently 66 years of age. Her story, one full of accomplishments, begins in Baltimore, Maryland where she was born in 1948. She moved to New York when she started college, where she studied Anthropology and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College, and she later went on to live most of her life (when she wasn’t traveling), in New York City. After receiving her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, Meiselas went on to get her Master of the Arts degree in Visual Education from Harvard University (Magnum, 2014).

In 1976, five years after she received her Master of Arts from Harvard, Meiselas released her first monograph, entitled Carnival Strippers. Carnival Strippers was her first photographic essay, which told the story of the lives of women who did striptease at New England county fairs.

Meiselas got to know these women over time, as she earned their trust and photographed them over the course of three consecutive summers. Meanwhile, at this point in her life, she was also teaching photography in New York public schools. From 1972-1975 Meiselas spent her summers off from teaching following the girl-shows to different carnivals from town to town, interviewing and photographing the women who performed striptease in the shows. She photographed all aspects of their lives, on and off the stage – this included performances, interviews, their boyfriends, the show managers, and paying customers.

She compiled all of the photographs, interviews, and other material from those three years following the shows from town to town, and released her book Carnival Strippers in 1976.

Within a few years of being pub...

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...rong person. She has often forced herself out of her comfort zone, struggling with missing her loved ones while working away from home, as well as facing her fears and braving dangerous situations in order to get the powerful photographs that she has taken throughout her career. Meiselas is further inspiring, as someone who has followed her dream no matter where it took her, and no matter what situation it took her to. Even today, at 66-years-old, she is still working, collaborating, and doing what she loves. In addition to her strong and determined character, Meiselas has played a large role in the documentation of many important historical events, and she has given a voice to many people, ultimately informing the world about people and places whose stories otherwise might never have been told. For all these reasons, she is truly a photographer worth looking up to.