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Kurdistan

Kurdistan is part of the larger exhibition first presented at the ICP and curated by Kristen Luben. Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History, Meiselas’ most difficult and innovative undertaking, it includes few of her own photographs. In essence it is a kind of archival investigation of a diaspora, a reclaiming of history through image and document: a chronicle of a lost country, on behalf of a scattered people. Meiselas has literally redefined the notion of a «witness» away from the traditional photojournalistic paradigm: she has become viewer, collector, curious observer and finally participant in the making of an endlessly unfolding history.

Since the 1970s, questions of ethics raised by documentary practice have been central to debates in photography. Perhaps no other photographer has so closely and consistently represented and participated in these debates than Susan Meiselas. An American photographer best known for her work covering the political upheavals in Central America in the 1970s and '80s, Meiselas's process has evolved in radical and challenging ways as she has grappled with pivotal questions about her relationship to her subjects, the use and circulation of her images in the media, and the relationship of images to history and memory. Her insistent engagement with these concerns has positioned her as a leading voice in the debate on contemporary documentary practice.