Allan Sekula: Fish Story Debuts at Wallach Art Gallery

Fish Story Arrives in New York

For the first time in its entirety, Allan Sekula’s seminal research-based photo essay Fish Story (1988–95) is on display in New York at the Wallach Art Gallery.

The magnum opus by the American photographer, writer, filmmaker, theorist and critic uses maritime landscapes and containerized shipping to examine the real-world human cost of the neoliberal shift toward globalization. Comprising nine chapters, 105 photographs, 19 short texts by Sekula, and two 80-image slide presentations, the exhibition is on loan from the Walker Art Center.

Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1951 before moving to San Pedro, California, Sekula studied biology and later earned an MFA from the University of California, San Diego, in 1974. Throughout his career, his work engaged deeply with labor, capitalism, and Marxist theory.

Mapping Global Commerce

Sekula’s extensive project documents port cities spanning the globe, including Los Angeles, New York, Barcelona, Gdańsk, Glasgow, Hong Kong, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Pusan (now Busan), Rotterdam, San Diego, Seoul, Ulsan, Veracruz, Vigo, and Warsaw. Through these locations, the work captures the hidden machinery of international trade.

Goods packed into identical containers routinely disguise their contents while traveling on ships registered under foreign flags. Handled by low-paid workers operating with few regulations regarding workplace safety or labor rights, these cargo vessels form just one part of the commercial fleet examined in the exhibition alongside oil tankers and fishing boats.

The installation connects the historical mythologies of the sea with the stark realities of modern logistics. It challenges viewers to look past the aesthetics of maritime trade and confront the deregulation that reshaped port communities worldwide.