My image this week is of a sandcastle! (a nice thought for these winter months) A highly temporal and ephmerol art work, that lives as long as the space between tide changes. Reproductions, in the form of photography or repeated builds, are necessary for this particular type of sculpture to extend its lifespan or be viewed by a wider audienceI came to a sandcastle by thinking about sculptures and the value that reproduction has for bringing sculptures, especially site-specific pieces, to a larger audience.
I understood an artwork's existence in time and space as critical to Walter Benjamin's definition of authenticity, and that reproduction degrades a piece of artwork by taking it out of its original context and meaning.
How does photography fit into this understanding? Can photography help capture the context of a work of art, especially in the case of a sandcastle? Does a photo of a sandcastle have any value, artistic or otherwise?
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