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Susan Meiselas | nga

Photographer Susan Meiselas (b. 1948) engages with diverse, often marginalized populations from across the globe. In many instances, she returns to the sites she has photographed to share her prints with the communities represented, a move that questions the traditional relationship between photographer and documented subject. She is also interested in the circulation of her photographs, a driving force behind her 2014 multi-media installation, The Life of an Image: “Molotov Man,” 1979-2009. In it Meiselas traces the afterlife of her iconic photograph depicting a Sandinista revolutionary hurling a Molotov cocktail. In addition to citing use by disparate factions, Meiselas includes examples of her own reengagement with Nicaragua and its people. Through the construction of an archive, Meiselas examines the shifts in meaning of her photographs over time and in different contexts. A member of Magnum since 1976, Meiselas currently serves as the President of the Magnum Foundation, where she is a leading voice on expanding the parameters of documentary practice.

09/07/16