Identifier:

Series VI.

Dates:

1824-2014, bulk 1960-2014

Extent:

34.64 Linear Feet (59 boxes, 1 flatfile folder)

Scope and content:

Sekula was a prolific and influential writer, theorist, and critic who is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost thinkers on photography of his generation. From his seminal essays through to his later works, Sekula's critical and perceptive assessments of how photography produces meaning is nowhere more evident than in his collected body of writings. The series provides a complete archive of Sekula's writings including their various drafts and their iterations in print and encompasses his written work from his undergraduate and graduate work through his last pieces.

Beginning with his MFA thesis, "The Production of Photographic Meaning," published in Artforum (13:5, January 1975), Sekula's many essays recontextualized the notion of the photographic image, revived and redefined documentary photography practices, and cast a critical eye on the photography market that developed in the 1970s. An anthology of his writings, Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works 1973-1983, published in 1984 as part of a series of artists' publications edited by Benjamin Buchloh for the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, is widely considered to be a classic text on photography. His essay, "The Body and the Archive," published in October (1986), also continues to be a widely read piece.

In addition to his critical essays, Sekula frequently edited or reformatted his photographic installations as visual essays in journals and books. Books publishing his individual projects include Fish Story (1995), Geography Lesson: Canadian Notes (1996), Dismal Science (1999), Performance under Working Conditions (2003), TITANIC's Wake (2003), Polonia and Other Fables (2009), and his last project, Facing the Music (2015).

Also included in the series are unpublished manuscripts such as "Arbus Notes" (1962-2009); unpublished lectures such as "Photographic Portraiture between Art and Science: August Sander and Physiognomic Traditions" (1982); transcripts of published and unpublished interviews of or conversations with Sekula; and writings on Sekula.

Processing information:

The series was processed by Beth Ann Guynn.

Arrangement:

Arranged by writing type, with each category arranged chronologically.

Contents

Access and use