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Fotos werden sehr geradlinig eingesetzt, entweder um eine Darstellung zu illustrieren oder um einen Gedanken zu demonstrieren der geradlinig oder logisch verläufe. Häufig wird Fotografie tautologisch benutzt, d.h. die Fotografie wiederholt das, was mit Worten gesagt wurde. Beide Verwendungsformen (der geradlinige Einsatz der Fotografie und die Bildung von Tautologien) negieren eine spezifische fotografische Symbolik oder Bildwirkung. Die so verwandten Fotos sind zumeist äußerst flach und nichtssagend, sie besitzen einzig die Funktion im Kontext der Medien für den Text den Wahrheitsbeweis anzutreten, indem sie ihn unterstreichen.

The technical reproduction as a new quality for the production and use of images results in a change of sensory perception. Photography, the medium which was described revolutionary in this sense, is the root cause of this change. It releases the work of art (image) from the

“parasitic existence with the ritual”

(Benjamin, Walter 1977) by abolishing the uniqueness and authenticity through a process of reproduction, which allows for an arbitrary number of copies and thereby changes all the social functions for works of art. Continue reading ‘Social Implications’ »

The cult value is specific to original images, dependant on the rituals with which the work of art is made available to the viewer. - Example: the God statue which is only accessible to priests – The artistic production begins with images which serve the cult. One can assume that for these images, it is more important that they exist than that they are seen. The technical reproduction uses this relationship on the basis of the characteristics given above. It brings what was until then hidden and difficult to access into the clear view of the public. The cult value with its ritualized usage habits is replaced by the display value, which allows for mass consumption.

“In photography, the display value starts to displace the cult value across the board.” (Benjamin, Walter 1977).

Before photography, the defining characteristics of an image were its originality, its authenticity, and the specific perception of the original in a ritualized situation. Benjamin (1977) called this combination of elements “aura”, which can arguably be translated best as the sensory impression of atmosphere. This aura was destroyed through technical reproduction, because the question of authenticity, of the original, is meaningless for a reproduction, since an unlimited number of reproductions can be made. Continue reading ‘The demolition of the aura’ »

The old methods of reproduction, such as lithography and xylography, still required the “whole person” (in terms of integrity). His hand carried out what the head ordered. During the course of the industrial revolution and the related social changes, this entity was abolished through photography. The image (negative) develops through a physical/chemical process, without help from a person, and without his “craftsmanship”. His perspective of nature alone determines what will later be seen in the image.

“With photography, the hand was for the first time relieved from the most important artistic responsibilities. Henceforth, these fell alone to the eye which looked through the lens” (Benjamin, Walter 1977).

Here we should have some notes regarding the fundamental character of photographic images. The quick expansion and marketing throughout the middle classes of the 19th century is indicative of the fundamental change in the nature and manner of human sensory perception through the medium, which Benjamin (1977) described as the first truly revolutionary method of reproduction - photography.

During the Weimar Republic, the foundation was laid for today’s representation of photographs in illustrated mass media. The individual photograph was replaced by the reportage (series of related pictures). The reportage was/is pivotal in shaping the character of magazines and the reader’s world view. On the one hand, the reader was provided with an illusionary world with the tenor

“look, the world is good, life is worth living”.

Continue reading ‘Photographic reportage’ »

The use of photography in mass image media (magazines, daily newspapers) was the next qualitative step in the history of photography. Photographic reproduction methods and print technology (gravure, rotary printing) had already developed to a point were the use of photographs was, in principle, possible. But it was only after World War I that photographs attained the exclusive significance in the media which they still hold today (in 1904 the Daily Mirror illustrated its pages exclusively with photographs, and the New Yorker Illustrated News followed in 1919). Continue reading ‘Photography in mass media’ »