art in the age of mechanical reproduction ☼☀☼

quotes from walter benjamin; the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, 1935; "in even the most perfect reproduction, one thing is lacking: the here and now of the work of art-its unique existence in a particular place. it is this unique existence-and nothing else-that bears the mark of the history to which the work has been subject." "the authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced." "we define the aura of the later as the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. if, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which casts its shadow over you, you experience the aura of those mountains, of that branch." "mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual."