Photographer, Susan Meiselas

We live in a hyper-digital society. There are countless media outlets, ever-changing technologies, and a constant flood of images on various platforms. How does one navigate the onslaught of visual stimuli— and how does an image-maker reach their target audience? With these new technologies and platforms come both challenges and possibilities. Inspired by the traditions of documentary photography— bearing witness to events and occurrences, and the desire to give voice to subjects who have none— We'd like to create a working group of ITP students whose purpose is to use this perspective and apply it to and consider new strategies for the digital author and engaged participants. Students will collaborate with the goal of marrying image-based content to its appropriate media platform so it can have greater social impact.  

Bio

Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer who lives and works in New York. She is the author of Carnival Strippers (1976), Nicaragua (1981), Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History (1997), Pandora’s Box (2001), and Encounters with the Dani (2003). She has co-edited two published collections: El Salvador, Work of 30 Photographers (1983) and Chile from Within (1990), rereleased as an e-book in 2013, and also co-directed two films: Living at Risk (1985) and Pictures from a Revolution (1991) with Richard P. Rogers and Alfred Guzzetti. Meiselas is well known for her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America. Her photographs are included in American and international collections. In 1992 she was made a MacArthur Fellow and most recently was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015).