Carnival Strippers Revisited
Susan Meisalas' "Carnival Strippers" has had a long history and several iterations.
Meiselas (b. 1948) is a renowned documentary photographer and the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" award. As a young woman age 24 just out of graduate school, Meiselas formed the project of getting to know and photographing the women who performed as strippers in carnival girl shows. From 1972 -- 1974 she spent her summers following small carnivals that performed largely in rural New England. She got to know the women who performed as strippers as well as the carnys who operated the shows and the men who patronized them, most of whom, like the women, were unsophisticated from the working class both rural or from small towns.
In 1976, Meiselas published the book resulting from her efforts, "Carnival Strippers". The book featured grainy, raw, black and white photographs, shot by hand, of the women both while they performed and off stage. It featured as well excerpts of interviews with the women as well as with the managers and the customers or "marks". The book documented a tawdry and fast-fading way of life in a way that, Meiselas, hoped, would show its character and allow the reader to understand it.
Meiselas wrote in her 1976 introduction to the book:
"Any book allows its reader to distance himself. The curtain closing on the girl show stage is replaced by the page turning over. Like the show, the book represents coexistent aspects of a phenomenon, one which horrifies, one which honors. If the viewer is appalled by what follows, that reaction is not so different from the alienation of those who participate in the shows."
The book went out of print and in 2003, a new edition of "Carnival Strippers" was published based upon a retrospective of Meiselas' work in 2000 at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art. The 2003 edition included some additional photographs and removed some photos from the original volume. It included a short CD of the barker making his pitch to prospective marks and of interviews with some of the women. The volume also included essays by Sylvia Wolff and Deidre English.
The 2003 edition in its turn went out of print. In 2021, "Carnival Strippers" was published in this third edition in a two-volume box set titled "Carnival Strippers Revisited". The first volume consisted of the original, 1976 edition of the book with a revised essay by Wolff and an new essay by Abigail Solomon- Godeau. The second volume "Making of", consisted of selections from Meiselas' extensive archival material gathered from her project of fifty years earlier. The book presents some of Meiselas' working notes and interviews for her project. It includes a selection of photographs, many of which are in color, that were not included in the published volumes, all of which are in black and white. The book includes transcriptions of audio interviews, correspondence and photographic proofs which show alternative versions of the photographs which ultimately were selected for inclusion. There is a map showing the locations of the carnivals Meiselas followed and an appreciative retrospective essay on Meiselas' now historic work.
In her short introduction, titled "Looking Back" Meiselas wrote of her early project:
"Recognizing the limits of what photography alone could do, I had to imagine a different form to engage readers in the nuanced experience of the girl shows. I chose to portray the women, their working lives, and clients with a filmic approach inviting total immersion."
I have loved this book for a long time. I was familiar with the original 1976 edition from the time I saw it on the shelves of a small independent quality bookstore of the type that is now uncommon. I thought of the book often and purchased the 2003 edition, which apparently is now rare, and reviewed it here. When I learned of this new edition, I was eager to read and review "Carnival Strippers" again in tandem with the 2003 edition.
The carnival girl shows that Meiselas portrayed have disappeared. This book documents a way of life and a culture that for all its shabbiness got into the blood of those that followed it. Meiselas became remarkably intimate and up-close with her subject, presenting it in a way that both "horrifies" and "honors". Some of the essays and supportive materials on the book approach the work from a strongly feminist perspective. While this approach is understandable and insightful, it does not exhaust the book or the world of the girl show. As I wrote in my review of the 2003 edition: "The women in this book are not beautiful air-brushed models and the book has little to offer in the way of titillation. Meiselas tries to show the viewer and the reader the carnival life for what it was. The book shows a dark corner of the theme of sexuality and of love between men and women in all its difficulty and ambiguity".
Meiselas' book deserves to be preserved and remembered through this new edition. The book captures something universal in the particular experience of the carnival girl show. It has always been special to me.
Robin Friedman
