{"data":{"id":"5420","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":5420,"topgoose_id":1420,"tms_id":5420,"display_name":"Susan Meiselas","sort_name":"Meiselas Susan","display_date":"1948–","begin_date":"1948","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eWhile studying at Harvard University in the early 1970s, Susan Meiselas began photographing neighbors in her Cambridge boardinghouse. Ever since, the acclaimed photographer has adopted a direct approach to the documentary tradition, often immersing herself within diverse populations for sustained periods of time. “The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation,” she has remarked.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeiselas’s first major project, \u003ca href=\"/collection/works?q[exhibitions_id_eq]=639\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eCarnival Strippers\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, was published as a book\nin 1976. Made at the time of the women’s\nliberation movement, this feminist work is\nthe result of the photographer’s engagement\nwith women working as strippers in\ncarnivals and fairs between 1972 and 1975,\nprimarily in New England. Using a small\nLeica camera without zoom lenses or a flash,\nshe could shoot unobtrusively, capturing\nthe full spectrum of carnival-stripper culture\nwith unflinching immediacy. Attuned\nto the minutiae of human encounters,\nMeiselas depicts not only the overtly sexual\nperformances but also the managers,\nbouncers, and “talkers” who lure clients,\nas well as the spectators, whose expressions\nvary from fascination to aggressive leering.\nOften shot from backstage or the edge\nof the stage, these candid photographs are\nas intriguing for their human insight as they\nare unsettling. Extensive transcriptions\nfrom tape-recorded interviews accompany\nthese images and provide a more complex\nrepresentation of the participants. Much like\nher contemporaries \u003ca href=\"/artists/4287\"\u003eDanny Lyon\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"/artists/3693\"\u003eLarry\nClark\u003c/a\u003e, Meiselas brings into full view a layered\nslice of America from its half-hidden fringes.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500059191","wikidata_id":"Q274604","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:23:36.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-11T07:02:37.889-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/5420/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/5420/exhibitions"}}}}