In this talk, part of 91Ó°ÊÓ’s History of Photography lecture series, Susan Meiselas will give an overview of her career as it was presented in her recent retrospective exhibition Mediations, shown in 2018 at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. Mediations has been nominated for this year’s Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, and select works from the exhibition will be on display at The Photographers’ Gallery from 8 March to 2 June 2019.
Favouring an immersive approach, Meiselas often collaborates with her subjects over long periods of time, and has focused on a wide range of challenging issues from ethnic and religious conflicts, human rights issues and the sex industry. She has for instance initiated cultural memory projects in Kurdistan and in West Papua and more recently explored experiences of women in a refuge in the UK’s Black Country. Meiselas adopts a variety of methods for each of her projects, beginning with photographs that then evolve as installations with audio and film, finding form on the printed page in a magazine or book or a participatory website.
This event will be an exciting opportunity to hear her talk about her unique approach, which constantly questions the status of the image in relation to the context in which it appears.
Organised by Helen Lewandowski (91Ó°ÊÓ), Erica Payet (91Ó°ÊÓ) and Professor Julian Stallabrass (91Ó°ÊÓ).Â