Susan Meiselas's 'Mediations' Exhibition Surveys Decades of Photographic Work at SFMOMA

SFMOMA in San Francisco is presenting 'Susan Meiselas: Mediations,' a comprehensive survey of the Magnum photojournalist's work spanning from the 1970s onward. The exhibition includes her early 1970s photographs of New England carnival strippers and their environments, capturing raw social milieus. Meiselas documented conflict zones in Nicaragua and El Salvador during the 1970s and 1980s, producing iconic images like the 1979 'Molotov Man' depicting a Sandinista fighter. From the early 1990s for nearly two decades, she focused on Kurdistan, initially motivated by the Kurdish plight during the first Gulf War and later exploring the region's history through layered photographic tableaus. The show runs through October 21, 2018, and originates from the Summer 2018 issue of ArtReview. Meiselas's approach combines widescreen empathy with off-the-cuff immediacy, creating work that transcends debates about whether it constitutes art. Her photographs from New England carnivals to Central American conflicts to Kurdish regions aim for human connection through informative visual narratives. The exhibition reflects contemporary museum curating approaches that embrace diverse photographic practices.