I saw Susan Meiselas photos for the first time when I was offered her book “Nicaragua” by a dear friend, as being something that would interest me. This was a wonderful gift indeed and I revisit regularly the powerful pictures of the fight of the local population against the ruthless regime of Somoza that eventually lead to his fall and the rise of the Sandinista. No need to introduce Susan Meiselas. This Baltimore born American photographer has been associated with Magnum Photos since 1976. She started her activity close to home, with the strippers of New England, but quickly switched to a more ambitious project in Central America: she documented the insurrection in Nicaragua, in the 70’s, revisited the situation in the 90’s and the early 2000’s. She also spent time in El Salvador or Kurdistan. Her social engagement remained throughout her career, like one of her latest projects in England, covering women in shelters. A short stay in Berlin was the occasion to visit a retrospective of her 50-year long career at C/O Berlin. Under the title “Mediations”, which to me reflects on her approach to documentary photography she practices, more than 250 photographs are presented in this large exhibition covering her oeuvre, in black and white and vivid colors. Of course, the center piece is the so called “Molotov man” with an interesting and revealing behind the scene account of that photography and what happened to that man later. In any case, Susan Meiselas is not lazy Susan.
