The Sony World Photography Exhibition at Somerset House just finished and we went to see it at the weekend. As part of the exhibition but separate from it was a tribute to the photographer Susan Meiselas. I regard her highly because she chose projects that were demanding and risky. One was the civil war in Nicaragua and the other was Carnival Strippers. There are photo books of each if you want to see her work in detail, and you can find her images by searching Google.
The one that stopped me and still does is from Nicaragua, at a site outside Managua where the National Guard carried out extra-judicial assassinations. It shows a man’s body stretched out. He is wearing blue jeans and his feet are pointing away from us and into the lush green valley and hills in the distance. He has no head and no torso, just a spinal column.
Google ‘Cuesta del Plomo’ to find it. And you can see her stuff on her own website – just google her name.
In the Meiselas exhibition was a small room showing a video from Carnival Strippers. I thought there was something apposite about the way people were gathered at the doorway to look in.
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