In the first of three segments, Walter Heun introduces Susan Meiselas. He indicates that this is the third week in a five-week series, and that the Leica Medal of Excellence award ceremony will take place the following day, followed by a lecture by Dmitri Baltermants. Meiselas presents slides of her work, discussing her first assignment, her experience teaching photography to children, and her first book, Carnival Strippers. She describes projects in Nicaragua and El Salvador and the ethical questions of gaining access and documenting and presenting conflicts. She then discusses the difficulties of working as a freelance photographer. Workshop participants ask questions throughout. In the second segment, Meiselas continues to present photographs, discussing issues around representation. After a question from the audience about documenting tragic events in black and white versus color, Meiselas discusses how to avoid aestheticizing these events. In the third segment, Meiselas discusses whether time spent in the field makes for better photographs, as well as the experience of working with other photographers in the field.
There’s more! What you see on this site is only what is viewable online. Please visit archives.newschool.edu to find out more about what’s in the archives.