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DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLING AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES: A conversation with photographers Nina Berman and Susan Meiselas

  • Joseph Jamail Lecture Hall, Columbia Journalism School 2950 Broadway New York, NY, 10027 United States (map)

CSSD working group Reframing Gendered Violence co-sponsors DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLING AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES: A conversation with photographers Nina Berman, An Autobiography of Miss Wish, and Susan Meiselas, A Room of Their Own.

Join us as we celebrate two new books by our colleagues: Nina's An Autobiography of Miss Wish, written with Kimberly Stevens; and Susan's A Room of Their Own, which she previewed in the Reframing Gendered Violence  working group last year.

Both books are extraordinary exercises in innovative and collaborative photojournalism on the most challenging terrain. An Autobiography of Miss Wish documents Nina's 25-year relationship with her co-author Kimberly, a survivor of sex trafficking. For A Room of Their Own, Susan immersed herself in the lives of women in a domestic-violence refuge in Britain.

We will discuss the profound challenges of documenting otherwise-invisible lives and inarticulable trauma.

This is an unusual opportunity to explore fundamental issues of research method, ethics and narrative with these two searching, profoundly insightful documentary photographers and writers. I hope you'll join us in honoring, and learning from, Susan's and Nina's rich and insightful work, and urge your students to come as well.

This event is hosted by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma