A Short History of Photography and Modern Public and Photography

A Short History of Photography by Walter Benjamin 1931

Benjamin discusses the changes in social and psychological dynamics in society as it moves into a mass-media age. He explains that as mechanical reproduction progresses, the aura is disrupted.

Tone: expository, factual, anlaytical
Outline:

The original or authentic art

The camera vs. the eye: "optical unconscious"

The gaze before and after corruption of aura

The photographic process: slow, few options

Photo vs. painting: No photographer will ever be as great as a painter

Atget, surrealism

The aura is ruined by reproduction

Shooting the banal

Photography in politics, societal issues

Photo as art or art as photo?

Terms/names:
Paderewski: pianist
Paganini: violinist
Busoni: pianist
Atget: French street/architectural photographer; surrealist
aura: invisible radiation
physiognomy: face/character



The Modern Public and Photography by Charles Baudelaire, 1859

In this writing, Baudelaire is concerned with how creativity is affected by modernity. He believes that the popularity of photography will diminish the power and beauty of art.

Tone: sarcastic
Outline:

Titles vs. representation

Truth smothers beauty

Artists appeasing the audience

Wonder

Photo as art vs. art as photo

Talent vs laziness

Art becoming corrupt through photography

Photo should exist as the handmaid, memory aid, scientific tool

Terms:
Symbolist: rejected realism, late 19th century France. For spirituality and imagination.
Vaudevillist: theatrical amusing performance
Physick: mystery of medicine
Amour et gibelotte: Love and meat stew
Misanthropie et repentir: misanthropy and regret
Perfidious: deceitful
Tomfooleries: foolish behavior