Carnival Strippers (2003, second edition)

Susan Meiselas's photographs and interviews with American strippers and their audiences

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

Second edition. Hardback in dustwrapper. 24 × 28cm, 163pp + CD in pocket at rear

Between 1972 and 1975, American photographer Susan Meiselas spent her summers following travelling "girl shows" across rural New England, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. The project captures the women who performed striptease under canvas tents at small-town country fairs—a distinctly American subculture operating at the margins of entertainment, gender dynamics, and working-class economics.

Meiselas paired her black-and-white photographs with extensive audio interviews she recorded in the field. The project incorporates the direct voices of the dancers, their boyfriends, carnival managers, and the paying male spectators (some of these are transcribed for the text, and some are on the CD included with the book).

This expanded 2003 edition features essays by curator Sylvia Wolf and feminist theorist Deirdre English analyzing the work’s legacy within photojournalism and second-wave feminism.

Condition

The book is in very good condition, and as mentioned the CD is present. The dustwrapper has some small amount of creasing to the bottom corner of the front cover but also remains very good.

ISBN

9783882439540