![]() The authenticity of the aura cannot be reproduced. In it his book Camera Lucida he wrote, “What the Photograph reproduced to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.” For Benjamin, in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, aura is a unique quality that the original only possesses at its location. Roland Barthes echos this sentiment, however not in regards to a unique object. Aura is defined as site-specific and thus cannot be reproduced through means of mechanical reproduction such as photography. The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced.” He goes on, “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.” Benjamin uses authenticity to define aura, and the aura of an object is intrinsically linked a unique objects, to its presence in both a space and time. ![]() He states, “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity. In the 1936 essay, Benjamin presents definitions of aura and authenticity. Historically, it advanced intermittently and in leaps at long intervals, but with accelerated intensity.” The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction is a critique of the ways in which the printing press, lithography, and later photography and film, revolutionized the way humans reproduce, communicate, and interact with images. Benjamin states, “Mechanical reproduction of a work of art, however, represents something new. In practice, these methods were casting of coins and the ceramic arts and were the techniques that man had to make items in quantity. Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by men.” Benjamin is referring to the pre-mechanical means of reproduction. Walter Benjamin begins 1936 paper The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by acknowledging, “In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. By reviewing these three essays, it is clear that the common understanding of Benjamin’s aura is incorrect it is simply not a of concern aesthetics in regards to the opposition of technology, but in fact is a far more complex discourse on the medium of perception. I will compare these two essays to Roland Barthes’ book Camera Lucida, published in 1980, in which he structures his discussion of photography using the terms studium and punctum. In both of these papers he appears to frame two very different arguments using the term aura. ![]() Arguably, Walter Benjamin’s two most well-known essays on the subject are Little History of Photography (1931) and The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936). Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes both wrote extensively about the medium of photography. (Benjamin’s Aura through Barthes’ Punctum)
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