Vivian Maier

Allan Sekula

Pays homage to the late amateur photographer with photographs taken in Chicago and New York after World War II, which portray urban life and feature subjects such as the elderly, African Americans, historical buildings, and the homeless.

Street Photographer

Fish Story

Long out of print, this seminal collection of essays and photographs are by artist, theorist and filmmaker, Allan Sekula. Originally published by the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1984, in these essays and images Sekula sought to portray the inextricable bond between labour and material culture, drawing deeply on Marxist theory to argue passionately for a collective model of progress. Sekula taught at California Institute of Arts (CalArts) from 1985 until his death in 2013, and from that insider's position he critiqued photography and the circumstances of its production and consumption, exposing what the medium failed to represent - women, labourers, minorities and the institutional structures that reinforce cultural biases. Allan Sekula (1951-2013) was an American artist, whose work spans multiple media: long form photographic series (Aerospace Folktales, 1973; School as a Factory,1980; War Without Bodies, 1991/96), critical texts (The Body and the Archive, 1986 and Debating Occupy, 2012) and film (The Forgotten Space, 2012).

Essays and Photo Works, 1973-1983

Photography Against the Grain

Allan Sekula's works are among the most discussed in the field of contemporary art. In his combination of photography and text, he explores the issue of documentary forms, which particularly now is of great relevance. In addition, his works make controversial contributions to current debates on economic, social, and cultural globalization. Only when these two aspects are viewed together do the themes dealt with by Allan Sekula fully disclose themselves. This publication gives an overview ranging from early performances and actions carried out in the context of the anti-Vietnam War movement, to works focusing on working world, to his most recent works dealing with international shipping. Particular attention is paid to an aspect of Sekula's oeuvre that is often underestimated: his interest in the theatrical, which acts as a counterbalance to the documentary side of his work and brings in other elements of humor and subtle irony. Many of Sekula's texts are presented here for the first time in German translation.

Performance Under Working Conditions

Ohio State University. Gallery of Fine Art

Don Macgillivray

Shedden Studio

A presentation of the archive of Leslie Sheddon which intends to function as a critical investigation of the conditions of cultural production at a very specific moment: their historical intersection between colonization and marginalization, its social and political implications, and its cultural consquences.

A Selection from the Negative Archives of Shedden Studio, Glace Bay, Cape Breton

Mining Photographs and Other Pictures, 1948-1968

Jan Baetens

Hilde van Gelder

As scratches of reality, Sekula's photographs and films leave their traces in our minds. They encourage, yes, even force reflection, and through that, slow changes can probably become a reality, certainly at the level of the individual.

Around Allan Sekula's Photography

Critical Realism in Contemporary Art

La Renaissance Society présentera une exposition du nouveau travail du photographe Allan Sekula. Cette nouvelle série, intitulée Polonia et autres Fables, documente et examine l'impact social de l'économie mondiale. Toujours dans le but de positionner son travail au sein de la communauté locale d'une exposition, Sekula développera ce projet pour se concentrer sur la riche histoire du travail de Chicago, en particulier sur la grande population immigrante polonaise ici.¦¦En plus d'être une photographie documentaire exceptionnelle à part entière, le travail de Sekula est aussi une critique du genre. L'examen de la théorie et de la pratique de la photographie par Sekula est aussi important que son enquête sur l'histoire du travail et l'économie. Au centre de son travail se trouve un intérêt pour la documentation - comme forme picturale, méthode d'enregistrement, dispositif narratif, mémoire historique et moyen d'engagement social. L'ouvre de Sekula pose les questions rhétoriques: «Est-il possible de parler de la photographie comme un milieu distinct de la chose photographiée?» Autrement dit, une photographie est-elle capable d'être auto-réfléchie en critiquant son sujet? La réponse de Sekula est non. Une partie intégrante de sa pratique est l'écriture, une activité qu'il a maintenue depuis le début de sa carrière il ya 35 ans. Ses écrits exposent les limites inhérentes d'un genre documentaire fondé uniquement sur l'imagerie photographique. Ensemble, les images et le texte de Sekula constituent un discours photographique sévère et rigoureux sur la mondialisation.

Polonia and Other Fables

"On the surface, our society looks much different than it did when Allan Sekula began writing criticism and making photographic works. In the late 1960s and early 1970s there was an identifiable counterculture, struggling, for example, to end the war in Vietnam. By contrast, today's social fabric seems both less tattered and more opaque. We can no longer identify a specific ""enemy"" as a tangible force that can be grasped or pictured, and perhaps it is even harder now to recognize our own complicity."

Photo Works, 1972-1996

Dismal Science

This publication intersperses essays from scholars, historians, and thinkers with a selection of Allan Sekula's seminal texts and excerpts from his private notebooks. The title is a reference to Okeanos--son of Gaia, the Greek goddess of the earth--who ruled over the oceans and water. Made and written across the decades, Sekula's sketches and texts focus on maritime space and the material, economic, and ecological implications of globalization. In projects such as his magnum opus Fish Story (1989-95), or films like Lottery of the Sea (2006) and The Forgotten Space (2010), Sekula provided a view from and of the sea. This publication expands on these oceanic themes, seeking to honor the scope and complexity of the late artist-theorist's work, and situate his ideas in current political, social, and environmental discourses. The book is divided thematically: the section "Containerization" focuses on the sea as a site of infrastructural complication; Sekula's work Black Tide / Marea negra (2002-3) is also revisited, which explores environmental violence and contamination as well as their social implications; a selection from Sekula's personal drawings are accompanied by an essay by photo historian Sally Stein; various essays readdress Sekula's legacy in the age of the Anthropocene; and a number of case studies by contemporary artists, writers, and thinkers examine ideas that overlap with Sekula's and expand on his interests. Copublished with Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna Contributors Nabil Ahmed, Keller Easterling, Carles Guerra Rojas, Celina Jeffery, Laleh Khalili, Rosa Lleó, Gabriele Mackert, Jegan Vincent de Paul, Filipa Ramos, Cory Scozzari, Allan Sekula, Sally Stein, Philip Steinberg, Daniela Zyman

Okeanos

John O'Brian

Vancouver Art Gallery

Gary Dufour

Co-pub. with the Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada, Exhibition catalog.

Canadian Notes

Geography Lesson

Whitney Museum of American Art

Walker Evans

B. H. D. Buchloh

Jean-François Chevrier

Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen

Musée Cantini

"Si l'oeuvre de Walker Evans (1903-1975) est strictement photographique, la photographie ne constitue qu'un aspect, mais très important, de celle de Dan Graham. Pour ces deux artistes américains, la photographie représente une manière d'approfondir leur intérêt pour l'architecture, la vie urbaine et la culture vernaculaire. Walker Evans réalisa l'essentiel de son oeuvre dans les années 1930, réunissant un ensemble d'images qui préfigurent le Pop Art. Dan Graham s'est manifesté dans l'art conceptuel des années 1960, comme l'un des artistes qui ont repris le plus consciemment l'héritage du Pop Art. L'exposition a été conçue par l'historien d'art Jean-François Chevrier. Les photographies et les textes du livre qui l'accompagnent devraient mettre en évidence les constantes formelles et culturelles communes à l'histoire des arts visuels et à l'histoire de la photographie."--Page 4 de la couverture.

Walker Evans & Dan Graham : exposition Rotterdam, 1992, Marseille, Musée Cantini, Münster, Westfalisches Landesmuseum, 1993, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1994

Allan Sekula

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