“The real challenge is not just making photographs that reflect their lives in an honest way, but can we engage people in a meaningful way to also act?” Susan Meiselas, 2017
Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas collaborated with Multistory and women in refuge during 2015 and 2016 to make a book – A Room of Their Own – which explores the lives of women who are survivors of domestic abuse in the Black Country.
This film includes an interview with Susan and two of the women who took part in the project; a selection of Susan’s photographs; and it provides an insight into the way we work with artists to make art with, for and about local people in response to their lives and experiences. A Room of Their Own is a multilayered, visual story comprised of Susan’s photographs, first hand testimonies and original art works from women in refuge. Through a series of collaborative workshops, the women worked with Susan, plus an illustrator and a writer, to explore their experiences of domestic abuse and resettlement.