kiji Allan Sekula’s “Photography Against the Grain”: The Archive and Politics of Documentary
Allan Sekula's Photography Against the Grain is a key text of critical realism. This analysis breaks down its 4 cores: 1) Reframing "documentary" from aesthetics to political practice and alliance; 2) The "politics of the archive" and how images are used by institutions (capital, labor); 3) Visualizing globalized labor through ports and logistics; 4) The politics of text-image sequencing. A critical toolkit for understanding the archival turn.