© Susan Meiselas . Magnum Photos
Pebbles with Enzo and Tina at the Carmine Street pool, Little Italy, New York, 1978

Written by Ashley Mercado
Copy Edited by Erin Pedigo
Photo Edited by Yanting Chen

Susan Meiselas. Mediations is an exhibition of photographs whose stunning imagery bursts with kinetic energy, human beings in motion and vibrantly passionate. This is the first retrospective of Meiselas’s work to ever be presented in Germany, according to C/O Berlin, the host gallery. Susan Meiselas, who has created “iconic” photographs over a fifty-year career, has worked for Magnum photo company, the gallery adds. Her work has covered global political upheaval. Her images are compelling, as each tells a story centered around global oppression and conflicts that affect minorities, spotlighting the underprivileged, whose issues were often overlooked and whose existence was underappreciated.

Meiselas's work has an incredible range, whether it's capturing the inequality of living conditions in the northeastern United States, where she portrays the everyday lives of striptease dancers in her photographic essay titled Carnival Strippers; or just in New York City alone, where she follows the lives of preteen girls from 1975-1992 in her study Prince Street Girls. Both studies allow us to see the interactive, collaborative essence she is known for that introduces many perspectives for viewers to contemplate. What I appreciate about these two specific studies is how Meiselas captured these women’s lives honestly without sexualizing them or romanticizing their living conditions. We feel understanding, empathy, and connection, in some way to the unique realities of people across America through her portrayals of different demographics.

© Susan Meiselas . Magnum Photos
Lena on the Bally Box, Essex Junction, Vermont, 1973

Often, capturing the issues and struggles of impoverished countries comes with a great amount of violence, including war. Covering Nicaragua’s revolution led Meiselas to take extraordinary photographs of a signature twentieth-century conflict. The photo Youths practice throwing contact bombs in forest surrounding Monimbo, Nicaragua (1978) shows three young men, anonymous in handmade masks, crouched down clutching projectiles. They lean into the foreground, and you feel them taking aim. They are young, and this photo represents how they are small within a larger conflict.

© Susan Meiselas . Magnum Photos
Self-por- trait, 44 Irving Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1971

Another, Sandinistas at the walls of the National Guard headquarters, ‘Molotov man,’ Estelí, Nicaragua (July 16, 1979), has the same effect of pointing to one country’s larger economic and political issue. C/O Berlin points out the subject’s intense physicality, the anger in his face as he clutches both a lit Molotov Cocktail and a rifle; he represents the struggle of Nicaraguans, but this photo has become highly symbolic internationally of resilience against oppression, the gallery notes. Yet viewing it, we can ponder the human story in the moment before he became a symbol.

© Susan Meiselas . Magnum Photos
Motorcycle brigade, followed by a crowd of one hundred thousand people, leading Los Doce (The Twelve), Monimbo, Nicaragua, July 5, 1978

This relationship, this intense effort Meiselas put into creating rapport with subjects, is the very heart of every work in Mediations. Her creative process includes having direct contact and dialogue with her subjects, crucial to capturing people’s lives. Meiselas paved the way for other photographers who also want collaborative relationships with subjects. Mediations presents her photos as finished products, and we also get to witness sound recordings, interviews, videos, archival material, and notes.

Susan Meiselas. Mediations will run through September 7, 2022, at C/OBerlin Foundation in Berlin, Germany.