A short history of photography.
Allia| N° d'inventaire | 23482 |
| Format | 10 x 17 |
| Détails | 64 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2012 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782844854445 |
"These first reproduced men entered the visual field of photography without antecedents
or, to put it better, without a caption. Newspapers were still luxury items that were bought
rarely, which was rather consulted in cafes; the photographic process had not yet become its
instrument and few people saw their name printed. From the human face emanated a silence, which rested
the look.
When Arago defended Daguerre's invention on July 3, 1839, before the Chamber of Deputies, he pointed out that an instrument used for the study of nature was nothing compared to all the discoveries that this instrument could have led to. One could not be more prophetic. This 1931 text predates the various versions of The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility, which made famous the notion of "aura," which was undermined by the appearance and multiplication of means of reproduction. It is also here that Benjamin addresses the notion of the "optical unconscious," the freeze-frame or enlargement that allows us to probe reality as psychoanalysis probes human impulses. In the light of his own intimacy, the author evokes the images of the great names who have marked the history of this art: August Sander, Karl Blossfeldt, Eugène Atget, and Nadar.
The first in-depth and educational analysis of this medium, both in its images and in its very technique. As in The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility, Benjamin examines the photographic medium from a social and political perspective, from its discovery until the 1930s.
"These first reproduced men entered the visual field of photography without antecedents
or, to put it better, without a caption. Newspapers were still luxury items that were bought
rarely, which was rather consulted in cafes; the photographic process had not yet become its
instrument and few people saw their name printed. From the human face emanated a silence, which rested
the look.
When Arago defended Daguerre's invention on July 3, 1839, before the Chamber of Deputies, he pointed out that an instrument used for the study of nature was nothing compared to all the discoveries that this instrument could have led to. One could not be more prophetic. This 1931 text predates the various versions of The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility, which made famous the notion of "aura," which was undermined by the appearance and multiplication of means of reproduction. It is also here that Benjamin addresses the notion of the "optical unconscious," the freeze-frame or enlargement that allows us to probe reality as psychoanalysis probes human impulses. In the light of his own intimacy, the author evokes the images of the great names who have marked the history of this art: August Sander, Karl Blossfeldt, Eugène Atget, and Nadar.
The first in-depth and educational analysis of this medium, both in its images and in its very technique. As in The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility, Benjamin examines the photographic medium from a social and political perspective, from its discovery until the 1930s.