Photography

The Documentary Photographer as Witness

March 23, 2012

The Fine Arts Department at Boston College, in collaboration with the French Embassy, Magnum Photos and the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, invite you to attend presentations by and a panel discussion with three photographers from the Magnum photo agency:

SUSAN MEISELAS,THOMAS DWORZAK, and ANTOINE D'AGATA

Moderator: Professor Karl Baden, Fine Arts Department, Boston College
Date: March 29th, 2012, 10:15am - Noon
Location: The Murray Function Room, 4th floor, Yawkey Center, Boston College



SUSAN MEISELAS
Susan Meiselas has for the past 25 years been regarded as one of the world's premier documentary photographers. A member of Magnum since 1976, she was the only photographer to cover the entire Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, resulting in the watershed publication, NICARAGUA, JUNE 1978-JULY 1979. Since that time, Meiselas has worked on projects involving conflict and refugee issues in El Salvador, Chile and Kurdistan. She has documented female sex workers in the United States and the history of 'outside' interventions with the Dani, an indigenous people of Papua in Indonesia.

In total, Meiselas has authored more than 9 books, and produced 3 documentary films. She has been the recipient of innumerable awards and fellowships, including a MacArthur 'Genius' grant in 1992.

In 2008, she was the subject of a major retrospective, Susan Meiselas: In History, which opened at the International Center of Photography in New York, and traveled to the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.

More info: http://www.susanmeiselas.com/



THOMAS DWORZAK
After photographing the war in former Yugoslavia, Thomas Dworzak documented the conflicts in Chechnya, Karabakh and Abkhazia as well as working on a larger-scale project about the Caucasus region and its people. Dworzak has also covered the Kosovo crisis, mostly for US News and World Report. After the fall of Grozny in early 2000, he began a project on the impact of the war in Chechnya on the neighboring North Caucasus. He also photographed events in Israel, the war in Macedonia, and the refugee crisis in Pakistan.

After 9/11, Dworzak spent several months in Afghanistan on assignment for The New Yorker. He returned to Chechnya in 2002. Since then he has photographed in Iraq, Iran and Haiti, and covered the revolutions in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. Based mainly in New York since 2004, Dworzak has been photographing the world of American politics and the impact of the war in Iraq. He is currently working on the projects M*A*S*H IRAQ, and Valiassr, an essay on Tehran's main avenue.

Dworzak has published 3 books, and has been the recipient of 3 Picture of the Year awards. He has been a member of Magnum since 2004.

More info: http://www.magnumphotos.com



ANTOINE D'AGATA
Antoine D'Agata's first books of photographs, De Mala Muerte and Mala Noche, were published in 1998; the following year Galerie Vu began distributing his work. In 2001 he published Hometown, and won the Niépce Prize for young photographers. He continued to publish regularly: Vortex and Insomnia appeared in 2003, accompanying his exhibition 1001 Nuits, which opened in Paris in September; Stigmawas published in 2004, and Manifeste in 2005.

In 2004 D'Agata joined Magnum Photos and in the same year, shot his first short film, Le Ventre du Monde (The World's Belly); this experiment led to his long feature film Aka Ana, shot in 2006 in Tokyo.

Since 2005 Antoine d'Agata has had no settled place of residence but has worked around the world.

More info: http://www.magnumphotos.com

This event is free and open to the public.