Walter Benjamin: The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

            In Walter Benjamin’s work “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” many aspects of art and technology are discussed, more specifically the idea of mass production of the image.  In the early part of his essay he writes about how the production of newspapers and photography led to the inevitable production of film that was accessible to a wide variety of audiences.  He wrote about how as time went on, there was no stopping the technology from continually advancing as well.  According to him, these technological advances had a huge effect on the culture and how the different classes of people were able to interact.  With artwork being recreated so easily, at a much more rapid pace, different classes of people were opened up to the arts availability.  For Benjamin, this is where the troubles of reproduction came into play.  He felt that authenticity, uniqueness, and the “aura” of a piece were completely ruined by the fact that it could be so easily replicated.  Now that the entire population was able to see artwork that only the wealthy were able to see before this time, the pieces seemed to become less meaningful in a way.  Although many would see this as a problem, there were also those who felt that with the reproduction of works, pieces lost their false importance that they once had.  All in all, the unique distinction that art once had was diminished by the age of mechanical reproduction in the masses.