Ways of Seeing Walter Benjamin: Berger's Inspiration

Chapter 1 of Ways of Seeing paraphrases several key concepts from Walter Benjamin's seminal essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility" (sometimes referred to as "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," the title used for an early English translation). In the essay, Benjamin explains how technologies that reproduce artworks—sound recording, photography, or even bronze casting—fundamentally change the nature of the works. Even the most perfect reproduction differs fundamentally from an original artwork, because it lacks "the here and now" of the work—a quality that Benjamin terms "the aura." The aura is diminished or even destroyed by the advent of reproduction, because a reproducible work of art can circulate freely, and is no longer tethered to the specific place and time where it was once solely on view. While this may sound like a bad thing, Benjamin posits that it's actually more democratic, since artworks become accessible to a broader set of viewers, not just the wealthy classes that previously owned them. While technical reproduction may diminish a work's sense of rarified authenticity, it brings the work to the proletariat. Berger adopts this when he urges the reader to "seize the means of reproduction," alluding to the power that images have to shape ideology. This application of Marxist theory to contemporary culture became the signature gesture of the Frankfurt School, which Berger borrows throughout Ways of Seeing, even beyond his outright references to Benjamin in Chapter 1.