Susan Meiselas and the Invisible: War Photography and Its Discourse

Abstract

Some images taken by American photojournalist Susan Meiselas in El Salvador in 1980 are explored under the wide optics of war photography and analyzing the power of reflection and information this photographic genre favors. This analysis focuses particularly on the concept of invisibility as a key element in the representation of violence. The article also examines how invisibility succeeds in fostering the demonstrative and reflective power of the photographic image, transforming it into a mediation to be questioned as something else rather than a dogmatic source of truth.