Susan Meiselas, born June 21st, 1948, is an American documentary photographer. She is known for her photographs from the 70’s of a war-stricken Nicaragua and American carnival strippers. She was born in Baltimore and got her BA at Sarah Lawrence College and her MA in visual education at Harvard University. She also received honorary Doctorates in Fine Arts from Parsons and The Art Institute of Boston. After school, Susan worked as an assistant for Frederick Wiseman and from 1972-1974 she worked for New York city public schools in the Bronx and designing photography classes for 4th-6th graders. She later worked for the States Art Commission for South Carolina and Mississippi setting up photography programs in rural schools. Growing up for part of my life in Mississippi, I have an even greater appreciation for Susan. The state of Mississippi is losing its arts and cultural arts and Susan could very well be the first person to try and fix that in that state. Mississippi is still in a place of phasing out art and music classes and replacing them with academic classes and it is incredibly sad to know that there are kids that will never experience the beauty of art. If anything is to change, we may very well owe it to Susan Meiselas for starting the turn of a page for future generations.
All work courteous of Susan Meiselas.