Transforming Tindale A museum story in a library setting by Michael Aird Adju...
Susan Meiselas' documentary work
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2. "The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don't belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation.” - Susan Meiselas
3. The recognition of this world is not the invention of it. I wanted to present an account of the girl show that portrayed what I saw and revealed how the people involved felt about what they were doing. … If the viewer is appalled by what follows, that reaction is not so different from the alienation of those who participate in the shows. -Excerpts from the introduction by Susan Meiselas published in her first book, Carnival Strippers, July 1976
13. I was the stranger who didn't belong. Little Italy was mostly for Italians then. The girls were from small Italian-American families and they were almost all related. Sometimes they would reluctantly introduce me to their parents if we met in the market or the pizza parlor, but I was never invited into any of their homes. I was their secret friend, and my loft became a kind of hideaway when they dared to cross the street which their parents had forbidden. I started photographing them in the spring of 1975… 'The Prince Street Girls' began as a series of incidental encounters; I would photograph them when I could. At the beginning I was making pictures for them. They'd see me coming and yell, 'Take a picture! Take a picture!' By 1978, they were changing, and I wanted to capture them growing up. -Susan Meiselas, excerpt from artist’s statement, Magnum Photos
14. Susan Meiselas USA. New York CIty. 1978. Pebbles, JoJo and Carol on the A train.
15. Susan Meiselas USA. New York CIty. 1978. Little Italy. Ro and Pina in front of their home on Mott Street.
16. Susan Meiselas USA. New York City. 1976. Little Italy. Carol, JoJo and Lisa hanging out on Mott Street.
17. Susan Meiselas USA. NYC. 1976. Little Italy. Dee and Lisa fight on Prince Street.
18. Susan Meiselas USA. New York City. 1976. Little Italy. Dee and Lisa on Mott Street.
19. Susan Meiselas USA. NYC. 1976. Little Italy. Ro, JoJo, Dee and Lisa leaving St. Patrick's School.
20. Susan Meiselas USA. New York City. 1976. Little Italy. Carol, Pina and Lisa.
21. Susan Meiselas USA. NYC. 1975. Little Italy. "The Prince St. Girls".
22. Susan Meiselas USA. New York CIty. 1978. Little Italy. Tina with Julia on Mott Street.
23. “ I think photography has a huge potential to expand a circle of knowledge. There’s a reality that we are all the more linked globally and we have to know about each other. Photography gives us that opportunity.” - Susan Meiselas