photographer research

 This week, we were asked to research a photographer from a given list. I chose Susan Meiselas.

Susan Meiselas was born in 1948. She began her career by photographing sex workers at her local carnival for three years in a row. She published the finished photo book in 1976 entitled “Carnival Strippers.” She then went on to photograph the events following the Coup d'Etat of El Salvador in 1979. Her photos from that time are bone chilling. One specific photo that really caught my attention was the one featured on this blog. It shows a room covered in blood. Just up the small corridor at the top of the room, you can see a group of children just outside on the street, one looking curiously at the Meiselas. The use of light and colour really brings the horror into the picture. The dark room with the rusty coloured blood covering the floor, but the bright, sun-lit street showing the children. It brings up the subject of how tough it must have been to grow up in such a difficult time. How can a child maintain their innocence when there’s national bloodshed? I find Meiselas work really interesting, I can imagine just how horrifying those pictures would have been when they originally came out.