Top 8 Quotes by Allan Sekula

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

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”

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

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”

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”

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

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”