Susan Meiselas
Photographic Master in Leiden
From the hotspots in the world she moved on to cool classes
Hans Arend de Wit
Teaching photography in a changing world.
I'd seen photos she made in San Salvador, and imagined how she experienced making them, under the bloody circumstances of war, death, and blown up futures. Susan Meiselas was bound to be stronger than life, for the conditions must have been as unthinkable as hell, on the edge of a volcano. When I myself drove amongst the ruins of the arenas where the massacres had taken place, I tried to visualize what kind of woman she could be, and what drove her to that kind of work, and this horribly unromantic vocation. Since the war had ended in El Salvador the world hadn't become a safer place to live. Sometimes the question popped, what would Susan be doing? There were still plenty of wars and revolutions going on. And we learned that she's been there. Meanwhile an economic crisis had started in our own midst, which also had far reaching consequences for most of us in the media. Would Susan somehow get mingled in this turmoil? Some time earlier a press release had communicated that she was involved with Master's in Photographic Studies in Leiden. Could it possibly be that Susan had found the eye of the storm in Leiden? This time I was too curious not to try to ask. She appeared to be approachable and willing to spare some time to even tell me about the Master Classes in the center of this rapidly changing world.
Students come from different backgrounds.
"The Master's in Photographic Studies is a special program because it brings together people from different backgrounds. We have students who come from the art academy. We have students who come from journalism, cultural studies, sociology, and art history. They take a Master's in Photographic Studies , which is a program that offers a perspective that has a theoretical and practical dimension, a fusion of the influences that will hopefully create a different kind of mindset. It's a one-year program at the end of which they must do a thesis. During a broad based exploration with a varying focus for each student, some thesis have chosen themes with a more classic critical approach, and some students pursue a visual thesis. We are training and bringing together different approaches, exposing the students to multiple-perspectives. Those who came with an interest in curatorial practice for instance, came in with an altogether different understanding and orientations when they leave. This program is extended to the whole environment in which photographic work can live, that includes the web, exhibition space, two-dimensional space, the multiple forms that photographers have today to work in, including public space.
I've taught in the States in a very secondary way; it's not been a principal thing that I've done. When I taught at Harvard I was teaching a fairly classic, advanced documentary production course. At that time the web was not yet as capable as what it is now, so much of the work was making projections, or installations. Whereas we nowadays can broaden to multi-media formats, that may include many new elements, video and stills, historical documents, and not just merely my own photographs. I am very interested in the notion of collaborative work, which is the focus of a special workshop, where students team up with partners from other disciplines or from within a community to make a project. That's at a glance the framework. This work intrigues me. If the project develops, then I coach them further in an independent study."
Film material almost disappeared.
"Many programs in the States no longer teach analog, which is I think unfortunate. I started teaching in elementary schools with young children making pinhole cameras and darkrooms in classrooms. The darkroom experience is a very important one, even though today it doesn't call upon us in the same way as in the past. You can't even practically find professional darkrooms today in New York. The question is what are you training people for and what do they do with whatever their skill sets are, and what kind of role can one still play in society that's a meaningful one. So we are thinking of environments in which photographs can still be valued, either in social networks or communities. I am not primarily interested so much in whether photographs can be sold, but more in what they do, who are they for, will they engage a public? So I think you have to call upon many different ways of thinking about photographs. I do not particularly think object-based work is the most important now, but am thinking more in terms of the creation of interactions with the public.
The relative success of photographers depends fully on what age they are. My generation certainly is challenged to figure out new ways of working. The old media environment we called upon is not there anymore. The magazine world has collapsed. But different kinds of opportunities are opening up. The question is can you adapt and whether you want to adapt? Not everyone can. When I look at people half my age, I see they have a kind of flexibility and imagination in relation to the new technology that I don't have. I have to work harder to find my way in the technology."
Are the students familiar with your work?
"I do not emphasize my own work but I share with the students how I collaborated with communities in a way that I found the results became richer. My work is only a reference to why I am interested in these ideas that I encourage them to explore in the workshop, to make them explore another orientation. And I've seen it work. Many students have gone on to work in major museums in Holland; some of the students have worked in the United States, as interns and some of them have gotten jobs. They evidently are finding opportunities. It all takes a lot of time to develop the skills, the insight. One can't judge the results immediately; that is what this job of teaching is all about. You have to believe, like farmers, you seed the land and hope that it rains, and hope then that the harvest will be good. It's not like a mould in the factory, you pour the material in and the product is there."