From her early series Carnival Strippers (1976) and landmark photographs of the Nicaraguan insurrection to later projects including Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History (1997) and A Room of Their Own (2017), Meiselas has continually questioned the conventions and ethics of documentary photography, particularly the relationship between photographer and subject, and the ways in which images acquire meaning through their circulation and evolving contexts. Extending beyond photography to encompass film, archival research, oral testimony, publications and collaborative projects, her practice is characterised by her sustained engagement with the people and communities she documents. By returning repeatedly to previously photographed subjects and places, incorporating multiple voices and recontextualising both her own and found images, Meiselas challenges the authority of the photographer as a singular narrator. Her work instead approaches documentary photography as an evolving process of testimony and exchange, foregrounding the experiences of the individuals and communities it presents.

Susan Meiselas was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1948. In 1970 she received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and earned an MA in visual education from Harvard University in 1971. She joined Magnum Photos in 1976 and has worked as a freelance photographer since then. Since its founding in 2007, Meiselas has also served as President of the Magnum Foundation, whose mission is to expand diversity and creativity in documentary photography. Meiselas is the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal (1979); Leica Award for Excellence (1982); MacArthur Fellowship (1992); Hasselblad Foundation Photography Prize (1994); Guggenheim Fellowship (2015); Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2019); and the Henri Cartier-Bresson Lifetime Achievement Award and Sony Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award (2025). Selected publications and projects include Carnival Strippers (1976); Nicaragua, June 1978–July 1979 (1981); Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History (2008); Pandora’s Box (2001); and A Room of Their Own (2017). Meiselas' work has been exhibited internationally including solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2000); In History, International Center of Photography, New York (2008) and Mediations, a major retrospective exhibition co-curated by Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelon and Jeu de Paume, Paris (2017-2018), which travelled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; C/O Berlin; FOMU, Antwerp. Her work is held in major international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Meiselas currently lives and works in New York.