A concise survey of Susan Meiselas's documentary photography

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 40 years ago.

This book in the Photofile series also includes short texts by Meiselas herself accompanying each work in the volume.

About the Author

Marta Gili is an art critic and exhibition curator. She was previously director of the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2006–2018), and director of the École nationale supérieure de la Photographie in Arles (2019–2023).

Celebrated Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas offers a remarkable commentary on her work and the role of the documentary photographer in this landmark book

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.’

About the Authors:

Susan Meiselas received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MA in visual education from Harvard University. For her groundbreaking work, she has received the Robert Capa Gold Medal for her project in Nicaragua (1979); Leica Award for Excellence (1982); Engelhard Award from the Institute of Contemporary Art (1985); the Hasselblad Foundation Photography Prize (1994); Cornell Capa Infinity Award (2005); and most recently the Harvard Arts Medal (2011). In 1992, she was named a MacArthur Fellow. Meiselas joined Magnum Photos in 1976 and is president of the Magnum Foundation.

Mark Holborn works worldwide as an editor and designer and was formerly an editorial director of Jonathan Cape and editor of Aperture magazine. He edited, with Michael Light, the influential Full Moon series of books illustrating the nine Apollo moon missions (1999) and Antony Gormley on Sculpture (2015). Holborn's other books include The Great War: A Photographic Narrative (with Hilary Roberts, 2013), Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture (with Meghan Dailey, 2009), Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 (2006), and Issey Miyake (1995).