Entrance to 'Mediations' with original mural from 'Reframing History' at the Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2018. Photo by Raphaël Chipault.
Meiselas often adopts different approaches to extend her work in various forms: photographic essays, installations, books or films. For example, the documents used in the book Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History (1997) became an online archive of collective memory, akaKURDISTAN (1998), which is currently shown as an on-going project in the form of a “Storymap” created by contributors from the global Kurdish diaspora. Working as an editor, she initiated two collaborative projects highlighting the work of regional photographers – El Salvador: The Work of Thirty Photographers (1983) and Chile from Within (1991). The latter focused on work by photographers living under the Pinochet regime. Meiselas has also worked on four films on Nicaragua: she co-directed Living at Risk: The Story of a Nicaraguan Family (1985), Pictures from a Revolution (1991) and Reframing History (2004), and contributed to Voyages (1985).
This exhibition reveals Meiselas’s unique approach as a photographer who has constantly questioned the status of her images in relation to the context in which they are perceived, showing how she moves through different scales of time and conflict, ranging from the personal to the geopolitical dimension.
Carles Guerra and Pia Viewing
Exhibition curators
'44 Irving Street' Self-Portrait at entrance to 'Mediations,' Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2018. Photo by Raphaël Chipault.
Portraits from '44 Irving Street' with hand written notes from the subjects, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, 2017
Vitrine with materials from 'Learn to See' and '44 Irving Street' projects, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, 2017
Installation view of 'Lando' and 'Prince Street Girls' projects, Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2018. Photo by Raphaël Chipault.
Vitrine with materials from 'Learn to See' and 'Porches' projects, Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2018. Photo by Raphaël Chipault.
Model releases from 'Porches' project in South Carolina & Mississippi, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, 2017
Entrance to Mediations, featuring 'Prince Street Girls' at Instituto Moreira Salles, Sao Paulo, 2020. Photo by Renato Parada.
Detail of 'Prince Street Girls' contact sheet, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, 2017