Kirjahaku

This landmark book offers a synthesis of celebrated Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas’s views on her work and the role of the documentary photographer. Through text drawn largely from exclusive interviews with editor Mark Holborn, she offers a remarkable commentary on her career, from early work with carnival strippers, through groundbreaking reportage on Nicaragua and El Salvador, to projects encompassing subjects as varied as the Dani tribe of Indonesia, the Kurds of Northern Iraq and victims of domestic violence in California. Central to Meiselas’s work are themes of collaboration, return and exchange. With over 110 photographs – some classics, others rarely published – this book demonstrates how the frontline on which Meiselas has worked involves a bearing of witness and a gathering of evidence. As Meiselas has stated: ‘To continue on is to be curious – to be compelled to confront, to examine, to expose, to engage, and not know where you will end up or how the journey will change you. The frontline is always a choice.’

This exhaustive monograph of Susan Meiselas will be released in occasion of the retrospective that will take place at Tàpies Foundation in Barcelone, Jeu de Paume in Paris and SFMOMA in San Francisco. Mediations is published by Damiani/Jeu de Paume/Fondation Tàpies. This exhibition and monograph propose a selection of works from the 1970s to today which reveal the particular approach of Susan Meiselas toward to the underlying reasons for making photographs, how the image concerns it’s subject as much as the photographer and the role that these images can have at different levels in society and particularly in photojournalism. She questions the relationship between the image and the subject in such a way as to include the people portrayed in the image in the process of the making. There is nothing systematic in her approach: each work expresses in a very strong manner that context is vital to the understanding of photography. Therefore her work is specific to the persons portrayed, to the notion of community to which they belong and to the locality of the geographic and political territories that the artist addresses. The way of the showing the work is equally a part of the thought process. How does the spectator behold the artwork? It is often comprised of many parts, made in different media: each “layer” is used to document a level of meaning. For Meiselas one should be able to grasp why the image was taken. Both the subject of the image and the context in which the images are shown are taken into account in the elaboration of each project.

Tar Beach. On the Rooftops of Little Italy brings together photographs and memories of life in and around the rooftops of Little Italy, New York. These are pictures that were made, kept and gathered by various families who handed them down from 1940 to the early 1970's. Reflections from the community offer perspectives of multiple generations, as Angel Marinaccio says: “If you had an accomplishment— communion, confirmation, wedding, graduation or birthday, you’d dress up in your best outfit and go to the rooftop to take pictures and celebrate with your family.” We see the images they shared and saved. The introduction to Tar Beach is written by renown filmmaker Martin Scorsese who grew up on the streets portrayed in this collection. He writes: “The roof was our escape hatch and it was our sanctuary. The endless crowds, the filth and the grime, the constant noise, the chaos, the claustrophobia, the non-stop motion of everything… you would walk up that flight of stairs, open the door, and you were above it all. You could breathe. You could dream. You could be.” Photographer Susan Meiselas, along with two of her neighbours, Angel Marinaccio and Virginia Dell’Orio, collected and curated these vernacular photographs to convey the feeling of this special place and time in the daily lives of Italian immigrants as they made their way to becoming part of American culture. The book is designed by Yolanda Cuomo.

A revolutionary history of photography from a stellar team of writers and thinkers that challenges all existing narratives by focusing on the complex collaborations between photographer and subject. This groundbreaking and multifaceted history explores photography through the lens of collaboration, and in so doing challenges the dominant narratives around photographic history and authorship. Led by five of photography’s great thinkers and practitioners, it breaks apart the ‘single creator’ tradition by bringing to light tangible traces of collaboration – the various relationships, exchanges and interactions which occur between all participants in the event of photography. Over 115 photography projects are surveyed in eight thematic chapters, and presented non-hierarchically alongside quotes, testimonies and concise texts by guest contributors. These networks of texts and images provide perspective on a vast array of photographic themes, from Araki’s provocative portraits of women to archival files from the Spanish Civil War. With more than 550 photographs and over 100 text contributors, Collaboration is an inspiration for teaching and an open invitation to scholars, activists, photographers and others to practice always with and alongside others, and to participate actively in this engagement and enquiry.

Compiled by Magnum photojournalist Susan Meiselas, Eyes Open is a sourcebook of photography ideas for kids—to engage with the world through the camera. Twenty-three enticing projects help inspire a process of discovery and new ways of telling stories and animating ideas. Eyes Open features photographs by young people from around the globe, as well as work by professional artists that demonstrates how a simple idea can be expanded. Playful and meaningful, this book is for young would-be photographers and those interested in expressing themselves creatively.

A classic of photojournalism, Nicaragua presents an extraordinary narrative of a country gripped by turbulence and uncertainty and traces the evolution of the popular resistance that led to an insurrection and would culminate with the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in 1979. The photographs are a cautionary tale about the barbarities of the modern civil war and delve into the repressive political struggle in Latin America. The book includes Pictures from a Revolution, a DVD in which Meiselas returns to the places she photographed and interviews some of her subjects about the realities of post-revolution Nicaragua. Un cl sico del fotoperiodismo, Nicaragua presenta una narrativa extraordinaria de un pa s en turbulencia y traza la evoluci n de la resistencia popular que dio lugar a la insurrecci n y que culmin con el triunfo de la revoluci n sandinista en 1979. Las fotograf as son un relato admonitorio sobre las barbaridades de una guerra civil moderna y hurgan en la lucha pol tica represiva de Am rica Latina. El libro incluye Im genes de una revoluci n, un DVD donde Meiselas regresa a los escenarios que fotografi y entrevista a algunas personas sobre la realidad de la Nicaragua posrevolucionaria.