Fish Story

Initially published in print in collaboration with Richter Verlag, Dusseldorf and the Fotografiska Museet in Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Tramway, Glasgow; Le Channel, Scène nationale and Musée des Beaux Arts et de la Dentelle, Calais Texts by: Allan Sekula, “Fish Story,” “Dismal Science” Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, “Allan Sekula: Photography between Discourse and Document” With the exhibition Fish Story, American artist Allan Sekula (1951) reconstructed a realist model of photographic representation, while taking a critical stance towards traditional documentary photography. Though there is a long artistic tradition of depicting harbors, ships and coastlines, few contemporary artists are continuing it. In Fish Story Sekula picked up this tradition, demonstrating the history and future of maritime space not only as a visual space but also as a socio-economic one. Fish Story was his third project in a related cycle of works that deal with the imaginary and actual geography of the advanced capitalistic world. A key issue in Fish Story is the connection between containerized cargo movement and the growing internationalization of the world industrial economy, with its effects on the actual social space of ports.