I would follow Susan Meiselas
Susan Meiselas went places during times when I would have been constantly looking over my shoulder, not through my camera’s lens. She saw terrible, radical things happen around her and instead of getting lost in the flurry, pulled back and took picture after picture, documenting rather then participating. Though it’s not that simple. There were a few photos that as I looked on, I tried to imagine the situation she was in, the immense emotions that she may have tried to keep at bay with her camera.
There was one photo of two small boys, battered and almost dead that I stood in front of for many minutes. I had seen photos of death before, seen pictures of horrible things from all over the world, and this picture was high on the list of horrible yet there was something I didn’t get about it. Thinking of her standing over these two little boys, who would have been cute and playful in life, I was terrified. She was terrified. What do you do when presented a situation that horrifying and all you have to defend yourself is a camera? Susan Meiselas fought battles armed with nothing other then a hunk of plastic and glass. If ever I could have that bravery, that direction, I would take it and run. I would chase her around the world, follow in her footsteps then find my way back home again when I ran out of film.