Susan Meiselas Honoured in Sony World Photography Awards

Spotlight / Photolog Sony World Photography Awards 2022

The World Photography Organisation—a strand of Creo, which presents the Sony World Photography Awards, the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards, and photography fairs in Shanghai and London—today honoured Susan Meiselas for her contribution to photography.

‘Meiselas has created a powerful corpus of work, expanding perceptions of documentary photography through her insightful portrayals of people in their communities,’ they said in a statement.

‘Meiselas is well known,’ they continued, ‘for depicting the stories of women: from girls growing up in Little Italy, New York; to strippers performing in state fairs; to women escaping domestic violence in the U.K., and for her work documenting human rights issues in Latin America, as well as compiling a photographic history of Kurdistan.’

Born in Baltimore in 1948, Meiselas earned an MA in visual education at Harvard University before starting her career as a teacher. During summer breaks from 1972 to 1975 she executed her first series, ‘Carnival Strippers’, which captured women doing striptease at small-town carnivals across New England.

Meiselas joined photography cooperative Magnum Photos in 1976. She has been President of the nonprofit Magnum Foundation since its founding in 2007.

On receiving the award, Meiselas said, ‘Over the past 50 years, I have had the privilege of witnessing history being made, sharing the often unseen lives of those engaged in its making. The work on display invites reflection not only on the photographs themselves but also on the relationships that shaped and inspired them.’

Excerpts of five projects by Meiselas—‘44 Irving Street’, ‘Prince Street Girls’, ‘Carnival Strippers’, ‘Pandora’s Box’, and ‘A Room of their Own’—will be shown at London’s Somerset House from 17 April to 5 May 2025. —[O]

Main image: Susan Meiselas, Roseann on the way to Manhattan Beach, New York City, 1978 (1978). © Susan Meiselas / Magnum Photos.