Book club: Walter Benjamin, Aura. Four Essays on Photography

Walter Benjamin’s contribution to the theory of photography lies in four key essays collected in this edition: “News about Flowers,” “Little History of Photography,” “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” and “Letter from Paris (2): Painting and Photography.” In them the philosopher reflects on the medium’s power to transform consciousness, memory and the perception of reality, and therefore political life as well.

Central to his thinking is the idea of the aura: the unique presence and authenticity of a work of art, which photography undermines through mechanical reproduction. Yet this loss of aura is ambivalent: it weakens tradition and ritual while opening art up to mass access and political intervention.

At our meetings we usually discuss our own ideas and the questions that come up while reading. So take notes and bring them to the discussion. You can also come just to listen.

Moderated by Yulia Reivakh, photographer and co-founder of Berliner Strasse Gallery.