Allan Sekula. Boy looking at his mother. Staten Island Ferry. New York harbor from the series Fish Story

Allan Sekula

Boy looking at his mother. Staten Island Ferry. New York harbor from the series Fish Story

February 1990

Silver dye bleach print

MoMA, Floor 2, 208 The David Geffen Wing

“Ships explode, leak, sink, collide,” Sekula notes in the first chapter of Fish Story, his photographic series depicting harbors and port cities around the world and the work needed to maintain them. In his images, Sekula often focuses on the everyday labor of sailors and dockers, who shuttle goods and services within the maritime economy. His approach adds narrative texture to documentary photography’s claim to objective representation. To capture the massive expansion of deregulated markets in the 1990s, Sekula’s project seeks to convey the perceptions of those experiencing the brunt of geographic trade amid globalized production and consumption.

Gallery label from

208: Institutional Critiques, 2026

Medium Silver dye bleach print
Dimensions 32 1/8 × 22 5/8 (81.6 × 57.5 cm)
Credit Vital Projects Fund, Robert B. Menschel
Object number 1243.2012.a
Department Photography

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