In Palermo the solo exhibition of Susan Meiselas, among the first photographers admitted to the Magnum agency

From Dec. 15, 2019 to Feb. 16, 2020, the International Center for Photography in Palermo directed by Letizia Battaglia is presenting the exhibition Intimate strangers by Susan Meiselas (Baltimore, 1948), one of the pioneers of modern photojournalism, who revolutionized reportage with her techniques and photographic series, and among the first women admitted to the famous Magnum Photos agency.

On display are Carnival Stripes and Pandora’s Box, two of the most significant works by the award-winning photographer, known for making photography a means of social denunciation against all kinds of violence: from domestic violence, illustrated in various projects, such as Archives of Abuse (1992) and Room of their Own (2017), to that of wars (famous is her reportage on the civil war in Nicaragua), as well as a tool of civic engagement for the defense of human rights. For her defense of women, she won this year’s Women In Motion award.

In Carnival Stri ppers flows a body of work that spanned three consecutive summers, from 1972 to 1975, in which Meiselas followed strippers at county fairs in New England, Vermont and South Carolina. A documentation consisting of black-and-white snapshots not only of the performances on stage, but also of their most intimate moments, to which were flanked by audio recordings of the voices of the leading ladies interviewed by herself. A multimedia narrative whose originality and depth marked a turning point in the history of photojournalism, opening to Miselan the doors of Magnum, which she joined in 1967.

It was twenty years later that Pandora’s Box (1995), a reportage to be considered the ideal extension of Carnival Strippers. The series made in a New York S&M club, reveals the existence of another relationship to violence and pain, here self-inflicted by choice. Pandora’s Box presents an exclusive 4,000-square-foot venue inside a Manhattan loft, where protagonist Mistress Raven along with her staff of 14 young women perform.

The exhibition will open on Saturday, December 14, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. with the artist in attendance.

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Free admission

Image: Before the show. Tunbridge, Vermont, 1974 © Susan Meiselas Magnum Photos

In Palermo the solo exhibition of Susan Meiselas, among the first photographers admitted to the Magnum agency

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