"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

In Walter Benjamin's essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," he made a lot of points about the way technology has affected art. One point he wrote about is how technology has had the ability to cause mechanical reproductions of works of art and this causes many things to happen such as the works of art start to lose their authenticity and uniqueness. Also he mentions new forms of art during that time which included photography and film. One other interesting point he mention was that original works of art have their own individual auras that come along with a specific time, place, and historical context.
I agree with Walter Benjamin that all art has its own aura. Along with this I also do agree that the reproduction of art takes away from this. After looking at a painting, reading a poem or book, listening to a song, or experiencing any form of art the viewer is able to understand where the art came from and the emotions/details transferred within the work; but when a work of any type is reproduced it tends to lose its sense of having its own experience which entails that the reproductions of works do not contain as special an aura as the original is able to.
When this was written in 1936, photography and film were the up and coming technologies in the art world. Walter Benjamin did not seem to like the way that these technologies were also causing for manipulations and reproductions of once original works of art. Although this seems to be a bit unrealistic because people throughout all time have been reproducing works of art of the people before them. The current art history I am in has shown this many times by showing us the many artists who recreated religious works such as: "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem" and "Madonna and Child Enthroned." So for Walter Benjamin to disapprove of the reproduction of work so strongly is something that I have to disagree with. I believe that it is okay to recreate works of art in your own style and that it would just create another new original piece with its own aura without diminishing the authenticity of the first original work. I do although agree that if someone were to deliberately lets say just take a photo of someones else's work and print it off and sell it as their own that it would definitely be taking away from that work of art's originality and causes it to be less authentic and unique which would be unfair to the original artist who actually created the wonderful work.
Overall Walter Benjamin did have a lot of good points on how technology can affect art based on the act of mechanical reproduction. Technology constantly is becoming more advanced and as this happens it becomes easier and easier to reproduce works of art.