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Susan Meiselas

Carnival Strippers: 1972 -1975

January 11 – March 3, 2018

Self-Portrait. 1971, 17.5 x 11.5" silver gelatin print
Lena on the Bally Box, Essex Junction, VT, 1973, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Teen Dream, Woodstock, VT, 1973, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Curtain call, Essex Junction, VT, 1973, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Returning backstage, Essex Junction, VT, 1973, From “Carnival Strippers” 
From “Carnival Strippers” 
End of the lot, Essex Junction, VT, 1973, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Tami playing to the crowd, Barton, VT, 1974, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Lena, Barton, VT, 1974, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Lena in the motel, Barton, VT, 1974, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Shortie on the Bally, Barton, VT, 1974, From “Carnival Strippers” 
The Managers, Essex Junction, VT, 1974, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Before the show, Tunbridge, VT, 1973, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Lulu and Mitzi, Tunbridge, VT, 1974, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Tentful of marks, Tunbridge, VT, 1974, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Playing strong, Tunbridge, VT, 1975, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Between shows, Fryeberg, ME, 1973, From “Carnival Strippers” 
The dressing room, Fryeburg, ME, 1975, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Larry and his girl, Fryeburg, ME, 1975, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Sammy, Essex Junction, VT, 1974, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Lena's first day, Essex Junction, VT, 1973, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Mitzi, Tunbridge, VT, 1974, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Coffee, Carlisle, PA, 1975, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Ginger, Carlisle, PA, 1975, From “Carnival Strippers” 
From “Carnival Strippers” 
The Star, Tunbridge, VT, 1975, From “Carnival Strippers” 
Extra Girl, Fryeburg, ME, 1975, From “Carnival Strippers” 
New girl, Tunbridge, VT, 1975, From “Carnival Strippers” 

Press Release

Susan Meiselas
Carnival Strippers

January 11 - February 24.  The Art Show.  February 28 - March 4.


From 1972 to 1975, Susan Meiselas spent her summers photographing and interviewing women who performed striptease at small town carnivals around New England. As she followed the girl shows from town to town, she portrayed the dancers on stage and off, photographing their public performances as well as their private lives. Meiselas' frank description of these women and the intimate and empathetic quality of her photographs brought a hidden world to public attention. Produced during the early years of the women's movement the book "Carnival Strippers” was published in 1976 to immediate acclaim and heralding a fresh and important new voice in photography.  Since then, Meiselas’s observant eye and mind have continued to tackle all manner of complex struggles and times of change from Nicaragua to Kurdistan to her own neighborhood in downtown New York.

Among numerous awards Meiselas received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992, an ICP Infinity award in 2005, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2015.  A retrospective of her work is currently on view at the Tàpies Foundation in Barcelona, and opens at the Jeu de Paume this February and San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art in 2018.