An extraordinary document in the history of photographic criticism. Perhaps more than any
other text A Little History of Photography by the German-Jewish thinker Walter Benjamin has
shaped the way in which we understand early photography and the photographic act. One of the
first theoretical studies of visual culture this essay laid the foundation for modern cultural
criticism. Instead of regarding the artwork as a unique object Benjamin emphasized the
political and artistic potential of a new technology based on endless reproduction. A Little
History of Photography was originally published in the German literary journal Die Literarische
Welt in 1931 as three short essays reviewing several books dedicated to early photography. In
this text Benjamin introduced concepts that remain central to critical theory of the medium:
the aura optical unconscious reproducibility among other topics. It constitutes a remarkably
prescient description of the limits and potentials of photography which remains
thought-provoking today.
