Fish Story. Allan Sekula

      

      FISH STORY ALLAN SEKULA

      Witte de With, center for contemporary art, Rotterdam

      21.01.1995–12.03.1995

      Fotografiska Museet in Moderna Museet, Stockholm

      06.05.1995–27.08.1995

      Tramway, Glasgow

      06.10.1995–12.11.1995

      Le Channel, Scène nationale and Musée des Beaux Arts et de la Dentelle, Calais

      16.12.1995–25.02.1996

       RICHTER VERLAG

      Project and Exhibition Coordination Witte de With, center for contemporary art, Rotterdam: Chris Dercon, Paul van Gennip

      Local Exhibition Curators: Fotografiska Museet in Moderna Museet, Stockholm: Jan Erik Lundström; Tramway, Glasgow: Charles Esche; Le Channel, Scène nationale de Calais, Calais: Marie-Thérèse Champesme; Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Calais: Annette Haudiquet

      Catalogue Design: Allan Sekula, Catherine Lorenz

      Editor: Barbera van Kooij

      Editorial Assistant: Robin Resch

      Printer: Druckerei Winterscheidt GmbH, Düsseldorf

      Publishers: Witte de With, center for contemporary art, Rotterdam, and Richter Verlag, Düsseldorf

      Edition: 3.000 softcover copies, 1.000 hardcover copies

      © Allan Sekula and Witte de With, center for contemporary art, Rotterdam

      © “Allan Sekula: Photography Between Discourse and Document,” Benjamin H.D. Buchloh and Witte de With, center for contemporary art, Rotterdam

      © photographs, Allan Sekula

      Witte de With, center for contemporary art, Witte de Withstraat 50, 3012 BR Rotterdam, Nederland, Tel. [phone], Fax. [phone], Witte de With is an initiative of the Rotterdam Arts Council and is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Culture. Staff: Gé Beckman, Chris Dercon, Paul van Gennip, Roland Groenenboom, Chris de Jong, Barbera van Kooij, Maaike Ritsema, Miranda Spek, Rutger Wolfson and Bob Goedewaagen

      Fotografiska Museet in Moderna Museet, Box 16382, 10327 Stockholm, Sweden Tel. [phone], Fax. [phone]. Curatorial staff: Peter Åström, Eva Bagge-Milanesio, Jan-Erik Lundström, Håkan Petersson

      Tramway, 25 Albert Drive, Glasgow G41 2PE, Scotland, Tel. [phone], Fax. [phone]. Tramway is owned by the Glasgow City Council and managed by the Department of Performing Arts and Venues (Director: Robert Palmer). It is subsidised by the Scottish Arts Council. Curatorial staff: Katrina Brown, Nathan Coley, Charles Esche

      Le Channel, Scène nationale de Calais Galerie de l’ancienne poste, 13 Boulevard Gambetta, B.P. 77, 62102 Calais Cedex, France, Tel. [phone], Fax. [phone]. Le Channel is subsidised by la Ville de Calais, le Ministère de la Culture et de la Francophonie, la Région Nord/Pas-de-Calais, le Département du Pas-de-Calais. Curatorial staff: Marie-Thérèse Champesme

      Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, 25 rue Richelieu, 62100 Calais, France, Tel. [phone], poste 6317, Fax. [phone]. Curatorial staf: Annette Haudiquet

      The organizers would like to thank: Gerlach Art Packers and Shippers, Amsterdam; Ron de Hoog, Een visie in lijsten, Maassluis; Rotterdam Arts Council, Rotterdam; Stichting Bevordering van Volkskracht, Rotterdam; Het Ministerie van O.C.W., Rijswijk; Nedlloyd Groep, Rotterdam; Stichting Bevordering van Volkskracht, Rotterdam

      ISBN 90-73362-30-X

      ISBN e-book: 978-94-91435-09-6

       TABLE OF CONTENTS

       Fish Story

       Loaves and Fishes

       Dismal Science: Part 1

       Middle Passage

       Seventy in Seven

       Dismal Science: Part 2

       Message in a Bottle

       True Cross

       Dictatorship of the Seven Seas

       Epilogue

       Allan Sekula: Photography between Discourse and Document Benjamin H.D. Buchloh

       A Note on the Work

       Acknowledgments

       Credits and Sources

      To five people, for all of whom, in different ways, the sea holds meaning:

      Evelyn Sekula, Stefan Sekula, Sally Stein, Stan Weir and Robert Wilkie.

      FISH STORY

       A sea-fight must either take place tomorrow or not, but it is not necessary that it should take place tomorrow, nor is it necessary that it should not take place.

      Aristotle, De Interpretatione

      1

      2

      1

      Growing up in a harbor predisposes one to retain quaint ideas about matter and thought. I’m speaking only for myself here, although I suspect that a certain stubborn and pessimistic insistence on the primacy of material forces is part of a common culture of harbor residents. This crude materialism is underwritten by disaster. Ships explode, leak, sink, collide. Accidents happen everyday. Gravity is recognized as a force. By contrast, airline companies encourage the omnipotence of thought. This is the reason why the commissioner of airports for the city of Los Angeles is paid much more than the commissioner of harbors. The airport commissioner has to think very hard, day and night, to keep all the planes in the air.

      2

      In the past, harbor residents were deluded by their senses into thinking that a global economy could be seen and heard and smelled. The wealth of nations would slide by in the channel. One learned a biased national physiognomy of vessels: Norwegian ships are neat and Greek ships are grimy. Things are more confused now. A scratchy recording of the Norwegian national anthem blares out from a loudspeaker at the Sailors’ Church on the bluff above the channel. The container ship being greeted flies a Bahamian flag of convenience. It was built by Koreans laboring long hours in the giant shipyards of Ulsan. The crew, underpaid and overworked, could be Honduran or Filipino. Only the captain hears a familiar melody.

      3

      What