In our age there is no work of art which is regarded with as much attention as a photograph of oneself, one's closest relatives and friends, one's sweetheart', wrote Lichtwark as early as 1907, thereby shifting the investigation from the
phere of aesthetic distinctions to that of social functions. Only from this standpoint can the investigation go forward again. It is indeed characteristic that the debate should have hardened most of all over the question of the aesthetics of photography as an art, while for example the so much less questionable social fact of art as photography scarcely received a glance. And yet the effect of the hotographic reproduction of works of art is of much greater importance for the function of art than whether a photograph is more or less artistic in its composition; for the latter turns into the exploiting camera (Kamerabeute). Indeed, is not the homecoming amateur with his vast number of artistic snaps more contented than the hunter, returning laden with the game which is only of value to the trader.
