Susan Meiselas

Susan Meiselas is an influential American documentary photographer known for her powerful, socially engaged work that often focuses on human rights, conflict, and marginalized communities. A longtime member of Magnum Photos, she rose to prominence in the late 1970s with her vivid, frontline coverage of the Nicaraguan Revolution, particularly her iconic image of a rebel throwing a Molotov cocktail.

Meiselas’s approach blends photojournalism with deep research and collaboration, often incorporating text, video, and archival materials. Notable projects include “Carnival Strippers” (1976), which documents the lives of women working in traveling strip shows, and “Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History” (1997), a layered exploration of Kurdish identity and memory.

Her work challenges traditional boundaries between observer and subject, raising questions about representation, power, and the ethics of storytelling.