num_pages: 29
description: Walter Benjamin's groundbreaking essay on photography theory explores the social and psychological dynamics of the mass-media age and is recognised as one of the indispensable works of cultural theory. The classic 1972 translation by Stanley Mitchell is now available in book form for the first time to mark the 80th Anniversary of the original publication with a new Introduction by writer and photographer Henry Bond.From the IntroductionApplied as a modus operandi any intention to demystify or debunk through a rebuttal of ides reues--conventional wisdom--often emerges directly from everyday life: anthropological field research made on a tram; in a cafe; at an art exhibition; lazing on a mountainside smoking a joint ('My First Impressions of Hashish'); or as here whilst perusing a selection of recently published photo-books.Benjamin's essay was first published in German in three consecutive weekly instalments in the arts-to-politics magazine Literarische Welt in the Fall of 1931 where it appears as 'Kleine Geschichte der Photographie.' Notwithstanding its appearance in the context of a journalistic features-led current affairs title Benjaimin's essay is I claim--I am bold but I cannot imagine I am alone in this conclusion--the single most significant essay in the quite slim canon of indispensable photo theory texts: there is no later scholar of photo who has not been influenced by it.Benjamin's deliberately unassuming 'little' history can and should be opposed to all the grand reference tomes on photography that are packed with so much ('includes more than 3000 color and black-and-white images' etc.) but which are ultimately only unwieldy and tedious.
language: English
title: A Short History of Photography
publisher: None