Black Tide/Marea negra from the exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery Photography, A Wonderfully Inadequate Medium is a photography series documenting the clean-up operation following the catastrophic ‘Prestige Oil Spoil’ in November 2002 off the coast of Galicia, Spain. After a severe storm damage, Oil tanker Prestige was forced to drift for days without any governmental admission to dock, and eventually split in half with the leakage of around 77,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil.

The accident was followed by controversy over the passiveness of the governments and the concealment of the tanker’s structural deficiency. However, Sekula turned the lens to the follow-up, which in comparison seemed surprisingly peaceful. Through both broad views and close portraits, he captured the cleaning work along the busy seashore, the oil and contamination in the bay water, and the exhausted people.

Figure 1: Gu, F. (2019) Black Tide/Marea negra [photograph]. Marian Goodman Gallery, London.

Figure 2: Gu, F. (2019) Black Tide/Marea negra [photograph]. Marian Goodman Gallery, London.

Figure 3: Gu, F. (2019) Black Tide/Marea negra [photograph]. Marian Goodman Gallery, London.

It is evident that in this series, Sekula’s photographs are often in diptychs or triptychs, accompanied by written pieces, referring to his notion of images being ‘dissemble movie’ (Allan Sekula: Photography, A Wonderfully Inadequate Medium, 2019). Single images are regarded as an insufficient medium, whose adequacy will only be retrieved in a coherent unity. It constitutes a crucial form in Sekula’s image-making, as also seen in Dear Bill Gates (1999) and Cliffhanger (1975) in California Stories (1973-75) from this exhibition. While a sequence of images constructs a visual narrative, texts, whether documentary or literary, serves a critical supplement.

Figure 4: Sekula, A. (2019) Dear Bill Gates [photograph].

Figure 5: Sekula, C. (2019) Cliffhanger [photograph]. 

In Black Tide/Marea negra (2002/2003), displayed alongside is a press page referencing the Long Beach Housing Action Association (LBHAA) fighting against the business entities, in defence of the low-income residents during the re-construction of the Long Beach City back in 1979. The reality of capitalist establishment and labour condition remains as Sekula’s major concern, which is conspicuous throughout the whole exhibition. Nevertheless, instead of filling the image with tension he chose to add a subtle touch. Growing up in a harbour and majoring in biology for degree study, Sekula regarded the maritime world as a forgotten yet sublime imagery to project the impacts and problems of liberalist globalization. As presented in Fish Story (1989-95) and The Lottery of the Sea (2006), the ocean is fairly isolated and thus a battlefield of interests and power, the conflicts of which inevitably involve and endanger the ordinary life.

Figure 6: Gu, F. (2019) Black Tide/Marea negra [photograph]. Marian Goodman Gallery, London.

Figure 7: Sekula, A. (2019) Fish Story: Walking on Water (Chapter 9) [photograph]. 

Figure 8: Sekula, A. (2019) The Lottery of the Sea [photograph]. 

The series Black Tide/Marea negra (2002/2003) serves as a concise depictive microcosm of the exhibition, which further embodies Allan Sekula’s artistic personality. He is a narrator, with the greatest honesty for his world. He criticizes photojournalism as over-processing and over-loading an image, and hence prioritizes a sequential and textual approach in image-making.

Reference:

Allen Sekula: Photography, A Wonderfully Inadequate Medium (2019) Available at: https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/allan-sekula-photography-a-wonderfully-inadequate-medium/press-release (Accessed: 11 May 2019).

Gu, F. (2019) Black Tide/Marea negra [photograph]. Marian Goodman Gallery, London.

Sekula, C. (2019) Cliffhanger [photograph]. Available at: https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/allan-sekula-photography-a-wonderfully-inadequate-medium/selected-works (Accessed: 11 May 2019).

Sekula, A. (2019) Dear Bill Gates [photograph]. Available at: https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/allan-sekula-photography-a-wonderfully-inadequate-medium/selected-works (Accessed: 11 May 2019).

Sekula, A. (2019) Fish Story: Walking on Water (Chapter 9) [photograph]. Available at: https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/allan-sekula-photography-a-wonderfully-inadequate-medium/selected-works (Accessed: 11 May 2019).

Sekula, A. (2019) The Lottery of the Sea [photograph]. Available at: https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/allan-sekula-photography-a-wonderfully-inadequate-medium/selected-works (Accessed: 11 May 2019).