‘The presence of the original
is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity. […] Confronted
with its manual reproduction, which was usually branded as a forgery,
the original preserved all its authority; not so vis à vis technical
reproduction. The reason is twofold. First, process reproduction is
more independent of the original than manual reproduction. For example,
in photography, process reproduction can bring out those aspects of
the original that are unattainable to the naked eye yet accessible to
the lens, which is adjustable and chooses its angle at will. And photographic
reproduction, with the aid of certain processes, such as enlargement
or slow motion, can capture images which escape natural vision. Secondly,
technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations
which would be out of reach for the original itself. Above all, it enables
the original to meet the beholder halfway, be it in the form of a photograph
or a phonograph record. The cathedral leaves its locale to be received
in the studio of a lover of art; the choral production, performed in
an auditorium or in the open air, resounds in the drawing room.'
Walter Benjamin, trans. Harry Zohn
Illuminations
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Please
Note: The captions for the photographs are headlines that appear in
the Jamaica Plain Gazette.