Unraveling the Discourse of Photography: ‘Knowledge’
‘Knowledge’ is a series dedicated to exploring the depths of photographic discourse and fostering critical reflection. In this inaugural episode, a member of the cizucu editorial team shares their thoughts on photography.
The aura that resides in contemporary photography—what might be called its artistic value—has evolved into something distinct from the mystical, enigmatic presence found in works of art from the modern era or in early photographs. This shift compels us to reconsider our understanding.
What does photography mean to us today? What significance does it hold?
Imagine encountering a celebrity on the street. Instinctively, we reach for our smartphones to take a photo. Even in that moment, our gaze is filtered through the screen, viewing the world mediated by technology.
With a press of the shutter, there is no longer a reduction of film frames; the image is digitally recorded and can be shared globally in an instant.
Moreover, with the advent of AI image generation, we can create promotional materials or consume images that merely resemble photographs. As images and photographs are consumed side by side, the questions of ‘how photography remains photography’ and ‘why photography is photography’ are left to each viewer’s perspective.
Photography’s history spans less than 200 years. To understand the essence of this medium—which has so profoundly transformed human perception and aesthetics—we must reflect on photography not only in the present, but across the axes of past and future.
With this preamble, this magazine feature focuses on the concept of ‘aura,’ which is indispensable to considering the value of photography. As photography heralded the era of mechanical reproduction, let us reflect on the notion of aura that imbues photographic works with artistic value.
The Time of Aura Cannot Return
The German philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) discusses the concept of ‘aura’ in his seminal essay, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1935).
What is aura? It is a peculiar web woven of space and time—a unique manifestation of distance, no matter how close it may be. To follow with your eyes, while resting, the mountain range on the horizon or a branch that casts its shadow over you—that is to breathe in the aura of those mountains, of that branch. (1)
It is the singular moment of ‘here and now,’ the convergence of space and time, a unique presence—an objectivity toward the subject, as if following a person at rest with your gaze. This is the ‘aura’ as described by Benjamin.
atget Faucheurs, somme — A photograph by Eugène Atget, renowned as an early photographer
How difficult it is to articulate such a concept in words. Yet, let us consider it intuitively.
Imagine yourself with a camera, observing people crossing an intersection from atop a building, and pressing the shutter at the moment they converge in the center. Isn’t the time of those crossing to the other side of the street captured in that instant? This moment will never return; it is impossible for the same people, in the same attire, to stand in the same positions and cross again.
Image by hikaru masamiya
The value inherent in each photograph can sometimes arise from this auratic perspective. However, aura is a highly intuitive concept, and its meaning shifts significantly depending on the subject.
Just as AI image generation is now discussed as a technology that transforms the meaning of aura in photography, so too was the invention of photography once debated as a new means of reproduction supplanting painting. In the next installment of Knowledge, we will delve even deeper into the notion of aura in photography.
References
(1) Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,’ in Benjamin Collection (1), edited and translated by Kenjiro Asai and Tetsuji Kubo, Chikuma Gakugei Bunko, 1995.