In the Face of Time. Essays on Photography

The collection brings together critical remarks, philosophical reflections, as well as real experience in the field of photography from one of the leading intellectuals of the Weimar Republic – Siegfried Kracauer. The essays, written in 1927–1933 and 1951, place photography in the context of mass culture, urban life, the world of cinema, as well as issues of memory and history. The collection concludes with a series of photographs by Kracauer for a hypothetical project "Curriculum Vitae in Photographs" with a commentary by Maria Zinfert. All these texts are preceded by an article by professor of the University of Montreal, literary scholar and historian of ideas Philippe Depuy "Kracauer – Theorist of the Photographic Medium".