Photography and Capitlism
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Photography, by inexorably transforming the aura of authenticity into a commodity would hasten the demise of capitalism itself. As a mechanical manifestation of the capitalist mode of production, photography, necessarily bore the seeds of capitalisms own implosion and demise.
The quote is used in an essay named Ectoplasm, the death of photography. The essay is a laborious and analytical look at the condition of photography in the digital age. This writing by Benjamin is used within the context to that of photography being linked with death. However, it is interesting what is being supposed.
Authenticity, 1.of undisputed origin or authorship; 2. Genuine
Aura, a distinctive air or quality associated with a person or thing
ÐPhotography is itself a statement of bourgeoisie power over the material worldÐ the medium whatever it depicts proclaims the bourgeoisie latent ownership of everything
Photographic truth turned into a commodity is what Benjamin argues will quicken the downfall of capitalism. Photography itself being a machine of the capitalist bears the Ðseeds capitalisms own implosion and demise . Does this statement have any standing? Is what Benjamin proposes true and is photography the downfall of the Capitalist regime?
The advent of photography saw the demise of past reproduction techniques, such as miniature painting, because of its exact representations and inexpensive cost. Henry Fox Talbots first images were a copy of his possessions; Daguerreotypes were an inexpensive replacement of miniature painting of ones loved one. The photograph gave people the notion that they had captured the object, or person in the image, it was there it was real. The Victorian era was an era of productive capitalism. Capitalism was beginning to break the homogeny of religion and institutions and dictate their status, power and political order .
Positivism is a theory which believes in the visible, that is what one can see is what is real. The world in Positivist theory is reduced to objects; this is a parallel to the capitalist production of objects. Objects have useful properties, such as wood and metal, these can be commodified. Objects can be viewed, through the use of science, or be owned. Photography in its representation of objects exemplifies this thought, and in doing so promotes the ideal that the world is only visible on the surface . In his essay, the object of photography Don Slater talks about positivism and its representations and says:
ÐThe critique of reification gives a compelling account both of how the world is so reduced and of why it produces wrong knowledge and suppressive social power: representation simply and slavishly mirror the appearance of the world created by capitalism
Knowledge is based on sight, and that sight, may be in a camera be able to be carefully chosen. Take for example Hill and Adamson, in 1859 they presented a picture to India shortly after the Indian Mutiny. The image was of a Dr Lain, who was a traveller to India who would dress in local costume to blend in with the locals. The images were badly inaccurate; however what this highlights is the playing of representation of fantasy. The hill and Adamson pictures were fantasy, the Westerns fantasy of the East. The images are representation of Ðreality, the Doctor is a real Doctor; he indeed did go on trips to India. The representation is reality in terms of fantasy, Positivism was a capitalist fantasy
As we have seen photography had the ability to represent the Ðreal. It personified the new ideal, positivism. The photograph was the epitome of the bourgeoisie thoughts. It emphasised the bourgeoisie thought that the visible be the limit of the truth , the bourgeoisie constructed the truth in the 19th Century. What Positivism encouraged was the ideal of trivial realism. Emphasising the world of objects; the objects that represented were what they were. To explain this we will look at Henry Fox- Talbots The Haystack. What we have here is an image from Talbots collection, The Pencil of Nature. Produced around a time where people believed that nature was the epitome of beauty . It is said of this image that it was a demonstration to disclose Ða multitude of minute details which add to the truths and realities of representation. The image is no more than that of a Haystack, it has no other meaning. It is taken at face value as a representation of reality.
Fig. 1 The Haystack
Semiotics is another ideology that began in this era. The semiotic, or study of signs began in literature but its meaning fluctuated with the introduction of photography. Semiotics deems an image readable by various signs that lead to a signified. It counters Trivial Realism as it says that images mean more than there face value. Images were now criticised in a constructivist manner. The meaning of an image is produced as a result of a signifying practice, for example the lights on a traffic light are signifies for the actions for you to take. Trivial Realism and Semiotics started a trend in which we are at today. The idea behind an image is that you capture a representation of reality, or a sign of an image, you have a part of that thing. However, like the representation of Dr. Lain the images are a fantasy, the fantasy of what you see. The traffic lights do not say stop, wait and go they are fantasised into meaning this.
What photography introduced into the world was the ability to copy and reproduce paintings and works of art. Paintings were seen in a different way to ever before. Many paintings of the past were as unique to the place they were painted. When taken out of their original context the Ðuniqueness of the image is destroyed, or in a sense the aura of the image. The painting re-produced is then used as a means of commodity, may be it a print or a postcard. It looses the meaning that the author indented, comes into a new context. Photography changed the way people saw works of art and it also changed the way art was used. At the turn of the 19th century Thomas J. Barratt in the promotion of Pears Soap caused an out cry when he used Ða childs world by Sir John Everett as part of an advert. The result was spectacular, the image an instant success. The public hung it on their wall and the bric a brac market picked up on the gimmick and produced tea sets and the like. The advertiser intended to move low class advertising to high class art.
What photography has