by Mike Viera

Susan Meiselas

Ethics and war are two topics not often associated with one another. But award-winning photojournalist, Susan Meiselas, visited the campus recently to explain how the journalistic ethics students learn at the School of Journalism and Communication are applied throughout the world even in war time.

Meiselas was invited to the SOJC to lecture at the annual Ruhl Symposium, which is supported by an endowment established by the late Mabel Ruhl in memory of her husband, Robert W. Ruhl, who died in 1967. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and editor and publisher of The Mail Tribune in Medford.

Standing before a capacity audience gathered in the Knight Library on May 19, Meiselas explored the ethical challenges photojournalists face when covering conflict situations.

“Photography involves ethics in the deepest way, right from the beginning,” Meiselas told the audience.

In her speech, “Covering War, Crossing Lines, Being Trusted,” Meiselas explained the ethical decisions photojournalists must make. These decisions, she said, are based on properly representing the people and situations encountered. A photojournalist must make judgments that will inevitably help them produce photographs that accurately bring forth the voices of those who most often go unheard.

“Susan Meiselas’ commitment to helping us understand the human condition, and to the highest ethics of photojournalism make her the most appropriate choice as the first photojournalist to deliver the Ruhl lecture.”—Tim Gleason

Meiselas has been concentrating on these voices since joining the New York agency, Magnum Photos, as a free-lance photographer in 1976. The work she has produced since has been compiled in books.

Meiselas displayed slides from three of these books. Her first major photographic essay, Carnival Stripper, was published in 1976. Meiselas explained how while shooting the pictures for the book, she made the transformation from being a teacher of photography to a photojournalist. She learned the necessity of crossing lines to enter the culture of the women she was photographing.

Meiselas went on to garner worldwide acclaim for her coverage of the Nicaraguan insurrection in 1979, which resulted in her book, Nicaragua: June, 1978—July, 1979. It was in Nicaragua where Meiselas learned that a photojournalist should be reactive and intuitive.

Most recently, Meiselas completed Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History, a photographic history of the Kurdish people that includes photographs dating back 100 years. She referred to these three books in her lecture to explain the responsibilities of a photojournalist.

“I see my work as a bridge between cultures—coming from one, understanding my own specific perspective, inviting others to contribute their perspectives,” she said.

Soldiers searching bus passengers, Northern Highway taken in 1983 is part of Meiselas’ work covering El Salvador.

Acknowledging multiple perspectives allowed Meiselas to gain the trust of the people she was there to photograph, which in turn created opportunities for her to capture compelling images.

“Susan Meiselas is a photojournalist whose work and career truly capture the spirit of the Ruhl Symposium,”

Tim Gleason, SOJC dean, said. “Her commitment to helping us understand the human condition, and to the highest ethics of photojournalism make her the most appropriate choice as the first photojournalist to deliver the Ruhl lecture.”

Meiselas’ photographs have earned her numerous awards, including the 1979 Robert Capa Gold Medal for “outstanding coverage and reporting.” In 1982, she received the Photojournalist of the Year award from the American Society of Media Photographers, and the Leica Award for Excellence. Meiselas also won the 1994 Hasselblad Foundation Prize for exceptional photographic achievement.

“Photojournalists are responsible for giving the image of a place in time,” Meiselas said. Representing these places in photographs, she noted, involves ethics to the greatest extreme.