Allan Sekula, Waiting for the Tear Gas, Tate Modern

Recently one of Sekula’s works has been exhibited in the Tate Modern as part of the Transformed Visions exhibition (2013) that explores the new kinds of expressive abstraction and the ongoing presence of the human figure; as well as the wider responses to violence and war. Waiting for the Tear gas chronicles emerging forms of Global Activism. 

The exhibition consists of 81 images taken during the widespread protests against the world trade organisation Ministerial Conference held in Seattle, 30^th November 1999. The series is presented as a 16 minuet slide sequence as well as also featuring as a contribution of 32 printed images in the book 5 Days that Shook the World, Seattle and Beyond, the both challenge the standard procedures of photojournalism, whilst documenting the fragmented collectivity that has come to define an era of mass social movements.

Sekula’s work is situated within a deep political context using both photography and the written word as mediums to create a multi-level critique of late capitalism. His works make critical contributions on questions of the social reality and globalisation, “The imaginary and material geographies of the advanced capitalist world”. What is impressionable in this particular series of images, is the human aspect, the multiplicity of the activists of the global justice movement, this is an aspect that is usually lacking from visual representations of globalisation.