The Camera and the Loss of the Aura in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Flannery Wilson
20 min readAug 15, 2024
The “everyman” and his camera

What does living in the “digital age” mean, really? For one, it means that we are now capable of reproducing images and sounds ad infinitum, and then sending these reproductions out to all of our friends.

Still, as we progress technologically, we are learning to become better consumers. Even though this free exchange of information exists, we are still willing to pay an exorbitant sum of money for an original Picasso painting or a “limited edition” photograph, signed by Ansel Adams.

Though it may seem reasonable to pay a large sum of money for an original painting, the photograph’s price is, to some extent, more questionable. This difference in value is, arguably, somewhat intuitive: a painting is created out of nothing; it is born in the mind of the artist and, on the whole, difficult to reproduce faithfully.

A traditional photograph, on the other hand, is simply a recording of exposed light and shadows; an imprint on a piece of paper. Once we are in possession of the negative, we can produce as many prints as we see fit, and with relative ease.

Walter Benjamin, who wrote a great amount of material on photography from both a retrospective and contemporary perspective, reminds us that photography was not always accepted as a “valid” artistic…

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Flannery Wilson
Flannery Wilson

Written by Flannery Wilson

Flannery has a PhD in Comparative Literature. She teaches French, Italian, and visual media. She has developed a love for improv comedy and performs regularly.