Response

Stylistically, both Allan Sekula and Andreas Gursky have very different photographs dealing with the issue of globalization. But when I look at the ideas represented in the images, they seem very similar. They both tend to represent a concept of globalization that is frightening and very believable. These contemporary photographs portray our modern society as something one would read in a dime store sci-fi novel. In Sekula’s photographs, we see the filth and grief of the real world, a world where people are losing their jobs, and the old order of things is slowly crumbling around us. In Gursky’s images, we get and equally disturbing view, but this view is from the opposite end of the spectrum. The buildings he photographs are grand and shimmering with light, but are never populated, as if to say the buildings are just for show, an attempt to give off the idea that everything is fine, but it is only a façade. When he does photograph people, they are always working in a giant mass. They appear to represent a machine, all of them moving at the same time, always working on their specific duty to present a single product. They never speak or show emotion, and they don’t really appear to be living. Globalization has been a big issue these days, and from the looks of how it is being represented, it is a terrifying one. It appears that our sci-fi future is here, except its not the Disney one we were promised, it’s more like the ‘Blade Runner’ one.

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Time/Space presentation