"...THE OPTICAL UNCONSCIOUS”:
ABOUT ART AND TECHNIQUE IN WALTER BENJAMIN'S WRITINGS ON PHOTOGRAPHY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v13i2.61162Keywords:
Photography, Art, Walter Benjamin, Optical UnconsciousAbstract
The aim of this paper is to claim with Benjamin the importance of photography as a philosophical object. Therefore, this analysis requires the treatment of three basic questions: (1ist) why photography constitutes for Benjamin such an essentially new method of reproduction that it cannot be compared to any previous artistic procedure; (2nd) how the very possibility of photography is linked to the recognition of its antagonism with the work of art; and (3rd), in which terms the impact of photography on the worlds of art and politics should be interpreted. With this analysis, we intend to make visible the reasons that still determine its novelty in a century that some are quick to describe as post-photographic.
Downloads
References
BENJAMIN, Walter. 2008. The work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility, and other writings on media. Edited by Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty, and Thomas Y. Levin; translated by Edmund Jephcott [et.al]. Harvard University Press, London, England.
BENJAMIN, Walter. 1972-1989. Gesammelte Schriften. (Sieben Bände in 14 Teilbänden). (Unter Mitwirkung von Theodor W. Adorno und G.Scholem; herausgegeben von Rolf Tiedemann und Hermann Schweppenhäuser). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
BENJAMIN, Walter. 2008. Little History of Photography. In: The work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility, and other writings on media. Edited by Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty, and Thomas Y. Levin; translated by Edmund Jephcott [et.al]. The Belknap press of Harvard university press. Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England, pp. 274-298.
BENJAMIN, Walter. 1999. Experience and Poverty. In: Walter Benjamin Selected WritingsVolume 2 (1927-1932). London: Harvard University Press.
BENJAMIN, Walter. 2007. Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
MCLUHAN, Marshall. 1972. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Formation of Typographic Man. University of Toronto Press.
SELIGMANN-SILVA, Márcio. 2012. A fotografia em Walter Benjamin: a “dialética na imobilidade” e a “segunda técnica”. Rev. bras. Psicanálise., São Paulo, v. 46, n. 2, p. 121-136, jun.
SONTAG, Susan. 2005. On Photography. RosettaBooks LLC, New York.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Fábio Caires Correia, Divino Ribeiro Viana
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
-
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
