BICA School Lab | 30 Essex Street
Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Benjamin, Walter. “A Short History of Photography.” Die literarische Welt, 1931.

What do we see in a photograph—and what do we miss?

In this richly layered essay, Walter Benjamin explores how photography transformed our relationship to images, memory, and truth. Written just a few years before The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, this piece previews many of Benjamin’s key concerns: aura, authenticity, reproducibility, and the politics of visual culture.

We’ll talk about early photographic portraiture, what it means to capture a face, and how new technologies continue to reshape how we look—and how we’re seen.

Bring your thoughts, your snapshots, or your questions about what makes an image powerful.