Allan Sekula is an artist using photography, but also essays, films and lectures, in order to explore issues of globalisation and capitalism. One primarily photographic body of work is 'Fish Story,' a massive body of work that looks at the shipping industry all over the world. The photographs are shown side by side with essays, information and facts about the industry, and looks at many different aspects of it- it is a very large body of work which tries to go against the idea of a singular image being able to convey a message. This idea is almost anti-globalism as well, suggesting that society is based too much on appearances, fast information, ever changing imagery that only looks at the surface of things.
To make the work, Sekula travels all around the world, visiting ports, ships, and the people that are involved in the industry. He obviously got inside and involved in the world, trying to understand the way it works, how it is changing and its function in terms of globalisation.
Although the work has been exhibited, it works best in book format, because it gives the impression of building up an image or an idea over the pages, and gives you more time to digest the mass of information and revisit it many times.
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