Kurdistan was erased from world maps after World War I, when the victorious powers carved up the Middle East, leaving the Kurds without a homeland. Today the Kurds, who live on land that straddles the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, are by far the largest ethnic group in the world without a state. Renowned photographer Susan Meiselas entered northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War to record the effects of Saddam Hussein’s campaigns against Iraq’s Kurdish population. She joined Human Rights Watch in documenting the destruction of Kurdish villages (some of which Hussein had attacked with chemical weapons in 1988) and the uncovering of mass graves. Moved by her experiences there, Meiselas began work on a visual history of the Kurds. The result, Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History, gives form to the collective memory of the Kurds and creates from scattered fragments a vital national archive. In addition to Meiselas’s own photographs, Kurdistan presents images and accounts by colonial administrators, anthropologists, missionaries, soldiers, journalists, and others who have traveled to Kurdistan over the last century, and, not to forget, by Kurds themselves. The book’s pictures, personal memoirs, government reports, letters, advertisements, and mapsprovide multiple layers of representation, juxtaposing different orders of historiographical evidence and memories, thus allowing the reader to discover voices of the Kurds that contest Western notions of them. In its layering of narratives—both textual and photographic—Kurdistan breaks new ground, expanding our understanding of how images can be used as a medium for historical and cultural representation.A crucial repository of memory for the Kurdish community both in exile and at home, this new edition appears at a time when the world’s attention has once again been drawn to the lands of this little-understood but historically consequential people.

Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History, Second Edition

Arts & Photography

Meiselas, Susan

Photography & Video

University of Chicago Press

From 1972 to 1975, Susan Meiselas spent her summers photographing and interviewing women who performed striptease for smalltown carnivals in New England, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. As she followed the girl shows from town to town, she portrayed the dancers on stage and off, photographing their public performances as well as their private lives. She also taped interviews with the dancers, their boyfriends, the show managers and paying customers. Meiselas' frank description of the lives of these women brought a hidden world to public attention. Produced during the early years of the women's movement, Carnival Strippers reflects the struggle for identity and self-esteem that characterized a complex era of change. This revised edition contains a new selection of Meiselas' black-and-white photographs together with the original interview excerpts. Additionally, an audio CD featuring a collage of participants' voices and a 1977 interview with the photographer are included. Essays by Sylvia Wolf and Deirdre English reflect on the importance of this body of work within the history of photography and the history of feminism.

Carnival Strippers

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

From 1972 to 1975, Susan Meiselas spent her summers photographing and interviewing women who performed striptease for smalltown carnivals in New England, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. As she followed the girl shows from town to town, she portrayed the dancers on stage and off, photographing their public performances as well as their private lives. She also taped interviews with the dancers, their boyfriends, the show managers and paying customers. Meiselas' frank description of the lives of these women brought a hidden world to public attention. Produced during the early years of the women's movement, Carnival Strippers reflects the struggle for identity and self-esteem that characterized a complex era of change. This revised edition contains a new selection of Meiselas' black-and-white photographs together with the original interview excerpts. Additionally, an audio CD featuring a collage of participants' voices and a 1977 interview with the photographer are included. Essays by Sylvia Wolf and Deirdre English reflect on the importance of this body of work within the history of photography and the history of feminism.

Originally published in 1981, Susan Meiselas' Nicaragua is a modern classic--a seminal contribution to the literature of concerned photojournalism. John Berger praised the work for its ability to, "take us right inside a revolutionary moment... Yet unlike most photographs of such material, these refuse all the rhetoric normally associated with such pictures: The rhetoric of violence, revolutionary heroism and the glorification of misery." Nicaragua forms an extraordinary narrative of a nation in turmoil. Starting with a powerful and chilling evocation of the Somoza regime during its decline in the late 1970s, the images trace the evolution of the popular resistance that led to the insurrection, culminating with the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in 1979. The 2008 edition includes Pictures from a Revolution, a DVD in which Meiselas returns to the scenes she originally photographed, tirelessly tracking down the subjects and interviewing them about the reality of post-revolution Nicaragua. The DVD booklet features a new interview with Meiselas in which she discusses the history of the project. Susan Meiselas, born in Baltimore in 1948, received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MA from Harvard University. Her first book, the classic Carnival Strippers, was published in 1976. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Hasselblad Foundation Photography Prize (1994) and the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award (2005). Her work has been exhibited at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. A member of Magnum Photos, Meiselas was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1992. She lives in New York.

Nicaragua, June 1978 - July 1979

History

Americas

Pantheon

Originally published in 1981, Susan Meiselas' Nicaragua is a modern classic--a seminal contribution to the literature of concerned photojournalism. John Berger praised the work for its ability to, "take us right inside a revolutionary moment... Yet unlike most photographs of such material, these refuse all the rhetoric normally associated with such pictures: The rhetoric of violence, revolutionary heroism and the glorification of misery." Nicaragua forms an extraordinary narrative of a nation in turmoil. Starting with a powerful and chilling evocation of the Somoza regime during its decline in the late 1970s, the images trace the evolution of the popular resistance that led to the insurrection, culminating with the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in 1979. The 2008 edition includes Pictures from a Revolution, a DVD in which Meiselas returns to the scenes she originally photographed, tirelessly tracking down the subjects and interviewing them about the reality of post-revolution Nicaragua. The DVD booklet features a new interview with Meiselas in which she discusses the history of the project. Susan Meiselas, born in Baltimore in 1948, received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MA from Harvard University. Her first book, the classic Carnival Strippers, was published in 1976. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Hasselblad Foundation Photography Prize (1994) and the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award (2005). Her work has been exhibited at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. A member of Magnum Photos, Meiselas was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1992. She lives in New York.

NIGARAGUA

Individual Artists

This new addition to the&nbsp;Photofile&nbsp;series profiles American documentary photographer Susan Meiselas and includes short texts by Meiselas herself to accompany each work. Best known for her work documenting the political upheaval in Central America during the 1970s and '80s, American photographer Susan Meiselas has been at the forefront of ethical debates around documentary photography for most of her career. Through close engagement with subjects such as war and exploitation, she has interrogated her own relationship to what she's photographing, the circulation and dissemination of these images, and the pivotal questions around social and cultural representation and memory. Her influential contribution to the way audiences approach and engage with photography is as vital and resonant today as it was forty years ago.

Susan Meiselas (Photofile)

Gill, Marta

Thames&Hudson

This landmark book offers a synthesis of celebrated Magnum photographer Susan Meiselass 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 Meiselass 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.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Exchange 2. El Pueblo 3. History 4. The Interior

Susan Meiselas: On the Frontline

A new, 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.Led by five of the great thinkers and practitioners in photography, and including texts by over 100 writers, critics and academics, this groundbreaking publication presents a potential history of photography explored through the lens of collaboration, challenging the dominant narratives around photographic history and authorship. With more than 1,000 photographs, it breaks apart photography's 'single creator' tradition by bringing to light tangible traces of collaboration - the various relationships, exchanges and interactions that occur between all participants in the making of any photograph.This collaboration takes different forms, including coercion and cooperation, friendship and exploitation, and expresses shared interests as well as competition, rivalry or antagonistic partnership. The conditions of collaboration are explored through 100 photography 'projects', divided into eight thematic chapters including 'The Photographed Subject', 'The Author' and 'Potentializing Violence'. The result of years of research, Collaboration addresses key issues of gender, race and societal hierarchies and divisions and their role in forging identity and conformity.The photographs from each project are presented non-hierarchically alongside quotes, testimonies, and short texts by guest contributors. These networks of texts and images offer perspectives on a vast array of photographic themes, from Araki's portraits of women to archival files from the Spanish Civil War. Each chapter is introduced by the editors, who provide the keys to understanding and decoding the complex politics of seeing.

Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography

Ewald, Wendy

Wexler, Laura

Azoulay, Ariella Aïsha

Raiford, Leigh

Meiselas assembled an array of historic material creating a collective memory and a vital archive from scattered fragments: An extraordinairy sourcebook. Commentary by Martin van Bruinessen.

Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History

Random House]

Compiled by Magnum photographer 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.

Eyes Open: 23 Photography Projects for Curious Kids

Children's Books

Arts, Music & Photography

Aperture

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Meiselas, Susan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Meiselas, Susan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Meiselas, Susan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History, Second Edition

Carnival Strippers

Carnival Strippers

Nicaragua, June 1978 - July 1979

NIGARAGUA

Susan Meiselas (Photofile)

Susan Meiselas: On the Frontline

Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography

Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History

Eyes Open: 23 Photography Projects for Curious Kids