Thursday



THE CINEMATIC IMAGE

the painter compared with the cameraman

"The painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web. There is a tremendous difference between the pictures they obtain. That of the painter is a total one, that of the cameraman consists of multiple fragments which are assembled under a new law. Thus, for contemporary man the representation of reality by the film is incomparably more significant than that of the painter, since it offers, precisely because of the thoroughgoing permeation of reality with mechanical equipment, an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment. And that is what one is entitled to ask from a work of art."


Extract from
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction


by


WALTER BENJAMIN


1 comment:

Ben said...

hipster triangle!