"The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism" - Lauren

We have examined Walter Benjamin and his establishment of the “aura” – such as how because photography is a mechanically produced reproduction or copy of an object, it (a photograph) does not possess an aura – but Douglas Crimp’s further conceptualization of these ideas in “The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism” not only puts them in a whole new light, but also helps to better understand Benjamin’s own point of view on the matter. What struck me as particularly interesting was Crimp’s examination of the relationship between the aura and the presence of the photographed subject.

What I found quite interesting, though also quite confusing, was Crimp’s discussion of photography and postmodernism, as the theory of postmodernism is a critical issue in another one of my classes. In that class, which is a city planning class about the theories of urban studies, post-modernity is described as a critiquing of modernity from within modern times and that it is a critical (and often ironic and sarcastic) stance towards modernity (although the definitions have varied dramatically so far and it is still difficult to put a finger on what exactly post-modernity is). In his essay, Crimp states that “the extraordinary presence of their work is effected through absence, through its unbridgeable distance from the original, from even the possibility of an original. Such presence is what I attribute to the kind of photographic activity I call postmodernist” (94). The connection I make between my other class and Crimp’s essay is that this removal of the presence that Benjamin seems to require in order for a piece of art to have an aura is the physical act of this ironic, sarcastic criticism. In other words, by playing with words, so to speak, and using absence to represent presence, postmodernist photographers are sarcastically critiquing Benjamin’s argument while at the same time conforming to his rules so that their work does possess an aura.

On the other hand, my other class also expresses a difference between modernism (images and visions that celebrate modernization) and modernity (the modern experiences we have). This could entirely alter the connection I just made between urban studies and postmodernist photography (such as, does this difference also apply to postmodernism and post-modernity?), and this is where I begin to really get confused….