Allan Sekula Quotes

• Documentary photography has amassed mountains of evidence. And yet... the genre has simultaneously contributed much to spectacle, to retinal excitation, to voyeurism, to terror, envy and nostalgia, and only a little to the critical understanding of the social world.

  Allan Sekula

  Photography, Envy, Understanding

  Allan Sekula, Illinois State University. University Galleries (1999). “Dismal science: photo works, 1972-1996”, Illinois State Univ

  7 Copy quote

• The only objective truth that photographs offer is the assertion that somebody or something... was somewhere and took a picture.

  Allan Sekula

  Objective Truth, Photograph, Offers

  Allan Sekula (1984). “Photography against the grain: essays and photo works, 1973-1983”

  9 Copy quote

• The photograph is an incomplete utterance, a message that depends on some external matrix of conditions and presuppositions for its readability.

  Allan Sekula

  Utterance, Messages, Photograph

  Allan Sekula (1984). “Photography against the grain: essays and photo works, 1973-1983”

  8 Copy quote

• Documentary is thought to be art when it transcends its reference to the world, when the work can be regarded, first and foremost, as an act of self-expression on the part of the artist.

  Allan Sekula

  Art, Self, Expression

  Allan Sekula, Illinois State University. University Galleries (1999). “Dismal science: photo works, 1972-1996”, Illinois State Univ

  6 Copy quote

• Black-and-white photos tell the truth. That's why insurance companies use them.

  Allan Sekula

  Black And White, Use, Telling The Truth

  Allan Sekula, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh (2002). “Fish story”

  5 Copy quote

• How does photography serve to legitimate and normalize existing power relationships? ... How is historical and social memory preserved, transformed, restricted and obliterated by photographs?

  Allan Sekula

  Photography, Memories, Historical

  Allan Sekula, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh (2002). “Fish story”

  5 Copy quote

• The making of a human likeness on film is a political act.

  Allan Sekula

  Political, Film, Humans

  Allan Sekula (1984). “Photography against the grain: essays and photo works, 1973-1983”

  5 Copy quote

• Photography promises an enhanced mastery of nature, but photography also threatens conflagration and anarchy.

  Allan Sekula

  Photography, Promise, Mastery

  5 Copy quote

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