"DESPITE ITS ORIGINS IN A RADICAL REFUSAL OF INSTRUMENTAL MEANING, SYMBOLISM APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN ABSORBED BY MASS CULTURE, ENLISTED IN THE SPECTACLE THAT GIVES IMAGINARY FLESH TO  THE ABSTRACT REGIME OF COMMODITY EXCHANGE...THE GOALS OF A CRITICAL THEORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY OUGHT, ULTIMATELY, TO INVOLVE THE PRACTICAL, TO HELP POINT THE WAY TO A RADICAL, REINVENTED CULTURAL PRACTICE.  OTHER MORE POWERFUL CHALLENGES TO THE ORDER OF MONOPOLY CAPITALISM NEED TO BE DISCOVERED AND INVENTED; RESISTANCES THAT UNITE CULTURE AND POLITICS.  SYMBOLIC REVOLTS ARE NOT ENOUGH, NOR IS A PURELY INSTRUMENTAL CONCEPTION OF POLITICS.  THIS...IS AN ATTEMPT TO POSE QUESTIONS THAT I TAKE TO BE ONLY PRELIMINARY, BUT NECESSARY, STEPS IN THAT DIRECTION."

- ALLAN SEKULA, "THE TRAFFIC IN PHOTOGRAPHS" (1981), FROM PHOTOGRAPHY AGAINST THE GRAIN: ESSAYS AND PHOTO WORKS 1973-83