Collections Online

Written on the back of this work is: “When I began photographing the women who performed striptease at carnivals in the early 1970s, I had two Leicas: one for color, the other black and white. I did portraits with a medium format camera. As I immersed myself further into the world of the Girl Show, I realized that the ASA of color film at that time couldn't handle the exposure I needed. Daylight was fine, but by night I ended up shooting handheld at low shutter speeds and still had to push the B&W film to 1600 to render the interiors of the dressing room and performances. This door was the entrance to the tent for 'Men and men only, no ladies, no babies'. Being excluded provoked me to sneak in disguised as a young man. I'm now just beginning to rediscover the color buried in my archive, which makes me think about how different the work then would be with digital today.” — Susan Meiselas