Lecture date: 1999-10-11
In the post Second World War period, containerisation, flag-of-convenience shipping, port privatisation and the breaking of dockers’ unions, can be seen as key forms of class struggle waged by international shipping capitalists. In the world of international shipping, automation and low-wage diasporic drudgery coexist. Allan Sekula’s Fish Story is a critical meditation on these developments. His project identifies a broader cultural context: that of the maritime world as a space and time fundamental to late modernity, despite its undeserved reputation for anachronism in an age of electronic linkages. Sekula discusses strategies of critical resistance to globalization, concentrating on his own collaborations and interactions with port workers over the past few years. He also examines the cultural ‘return’ of the sea, touching on Bill Gates’ fascination with Winslow Homer, the filming of Titanic, and Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.
Allan Sekula is a photographer, writer and critic.
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