Carnival Strippers by Susan Meiselas at The Photobook Museum

Carnival Strippers, one of the most important and now iconic photobooks of the second half of the 20th century, was created between 1972 and 1975.

Overview

In New England, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, striptease dancers performing in country fairs were photographed and interviewed by Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas. As she followed the “carnivals” from town to town Meiselas documented the women’s public performances, portraying them backstage while also assuming the role of an unseen bystander. She captured the interactions between the dancers, the show’s managers and the paying customers, both with proximity and distance. Her uncompromisingly honest view of the world, would later influence the work of many photographers.

Carnival Strippers revealed a hidden world to the public, while at the same time showing the protagonists’ courageous struggle for identity and self-esteem. A photographic masterpiece of the international women’s movement, it gave women a voice in the form of a photographic essay and accompanying texts. 

In 2022 Susan Meiselas and Felix Hoffmann, together with Gerhard Steidl, published a comprehensive making-of and a reprint of her legendary photobook, titled Carnival Strippers Revisited.