Walter Benjamin was a jewish literary theorist and a marxist cultural/literary critic and philosopher.
Critical Theory is essentially the same as marxist but with some differences:
Treats society as a whole
is interdisciplinary and not just economic
aims at society that is rational and free
means to reveal how contemporary capitalist society deceives and dominates the economy and culture.
Benjamin’s writing and ideas were presented as fragments in sections that reflect his thought process.
An article that was written about Karl Blossfeldt’s ‘plant photographs’ suggested that photography can reveal new things to us even with the most ordinary objects. It contains indications of a theme that appears a lot in Benjamin’s later texts on photography.
‘Human Perception’
Human perception has two forms, three dimensional space and one dimensional time. The human sensory and cognitive follows these forms regardless.
‘we can stop time’ ‘we can reveal movement by speeding up and slowing down time.’
A short history of photography
Benjamin’s treatment of the subject goes beyond chronological developments, his ideas o the cognitive and political aspect of photography introduced his concept of the ‘optical unconcious’
Photography also changes perception:
we can time travel
the photographs depict a particular moment which allows us to go back to that time and relive it in our heads
it stops individuals in their tracks and helps them preserve a moment which makes it a mystery
Walter Benjamin introduced the concept of the ‘aura’ which is considered a strange web of time and space.
The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction – 1936
The text examines the effects of modernity on the work of art in particular
Benjamins key work on the sense of perception bought about by new technologies and film
Extensive discussions of the concept of ‘aura’ upset this tradition.The ‘aura’ of work is distance from us and it’s unattainability which derives importance and value.
Photography makes art work accessible in all times and places instead of being an object of the reproduced art work.
Summary of Benjamins key ideas
Photography is a medium that transforms us psychologically, culturally and politically.
The transformation of human perception means that we can see the world beyond the capacity of our own senses.
The optical unconscious proceeds from photographs that are of both the past and present.
Aura is undermined by reproduction and was destroyed by mechanical reproduction.
Photography Theory 