Optical Unconscious

In 1936, a German art critic wrote an groundbreaking essay entitled "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". In discussing the work of Surrealist photographers and their forebears, he talks about the "optical unconscious" and the ability of photography to open up spaces that previously existed only in dreams - things that had never been consciously seen, let along reproduced.

Perhaps earlier than most, the author appears to recognize photography's rightful place among other fine art media. For art - no matter what tools and techniques are used to create it - rises above the world as we see it... and shows the world as the artist sees it.