@cougar_sean
As much as I would like to agree with Walter Benjamin in his discussion of an “aura”, I find myself wholeheartedly disagreeing with his expressive description of photography and how it destroys the image of art as it can be so easily reproduced. He says the same about films: “The painting invites the spectator to contemplation; before it the spectator can abandon himself to his associations. Before the movie frame he cannot do so. No sooner has his eye grasped a scene than it is already changed.” But he is missing the fact that each frame in a movie is a work of art. The emotions and experiences captured within the duration of a film would fill the walls of an art museum and then some.
The image I uploaded (above) is a photograph of a photograph yes, but it still holds all the same emotions and activities as when it was first taken. Four men take a break from work constructing the façade around this old Parisian building and glance up to see the Google truck zoom by on this ancient cobblestone road. Benjamin would argue that this is the work of a magician who “maintains the natural distance between the patient and himself.” But I see just the opposite. I see the work of a surgeon. This photo was taken long ago and I found it using digital means simply sitting at my computer searching. I found this and brought it to light. This has life. This is life.