On Photography

Description

Walter Benjamin's essay 'A Short History of Photography' (1931) made bold statements about photographic pioneers such as David Octavius Hill and Nicephore Niepce, and the social and historical context of their work. This first selection of Benjamin's writings on photography includes a new translation of this influential essay as well as a range of Benjamin's other writings, both published and unpublished, some of which are translated into English for the first time here.

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was a German philosopher and cultural critic and one of the most important theorists of the twentieth century. Esther Leslie is professor of political aesthetics at Birkbeck, University of London. She is the author of "Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant "Garde; "Synthetic Worlds: Nature, Art and the Chemical Industry"; and "Walter Benjamin," the latter two also published by Reaktion Books.