‘The Work of Art’ essay’s aura concept was developed earlier in the photography essay

Evidence

In the `Small History of Photography’, which appeared in the Literarische Welt in 1931, Benjamin generalized this idea about the reduction of great works of art, the destruction of the aura of paintings and of architectural works, into the concept of the liberation of the object from its aura. In this forerunner to his essay about the work of art, he contrasted in a much clearer way the definition of the aura, which sounded full of yearning, with an optimistic observation of its unstoppable tendency to smash apart. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 225

Categorization

• XREF: Bridges the 1931 Small History of Photography and the 1936 artwork essay in one sequence.