Exhibition Details
First exhibited in 1995 at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (now Kunstinstituut Melly), Fish Story is on loan from the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the only museum to have collected the entire project. Unfolding over nine interwoven chapters, Fish Story is one of the late 20th century’s most important image-based research projects and has rarely been exhibited as a complete project. Fish Story is the result of seven years (1988–1995) of documenting harbors and port cities around the world. Sekula began his journey in Los Angeles at the port in San Pedro, where he grew up, and traveled as far as Korea, Scotland, and Poland, photographing the prosperity, poverty, and political powers that continue to play out in these sites.
About the Artist
Photographer, writer, and critic Allan Sekula (1951–2013) was one of the most influential visual theorists of his generation. His work profoundly impacted conceptual uses of photography and challenged assumptions about the image's role in creating meanings. Blending rigorous research with descriptive realism and impactful narrative, Sekula's photographs and essays explore labor, capitalism, and Marxist theory. Since his death, his influence on understanding photography as both a communicative and aesthetic tool has continued to grow.
Location
Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery
Lenfest Center for the Arts
615 West 129th Street
New York, NY 10027
Image: Allan Sekula, “Panorama. Mid-Atlantic,” (detail) from Fish Story, Chapter Three: Middle Passage, 1988-1995. / Courtesy of the Walker Art Center and Allan Sekula Studio.