An image can have so many meanings depending on so many things. The simple environment around the image can change the meaning of it .The picture that I picked was a painting that was on a wall of a local flower shop. It is an image that pops out on you when I was there it is a regular street and there’s barber shop next to it and other small shops that image is important because it is a religious image it is an image of the virgin Mary an important god in my religion.
When I was there where the image is located it is next to a really busy main street many cars and people walk by that image there are other images around that image but they all have graffiti on them and the only image that doesn’t have anything on it is the painting of the virgin Mary the image makes you feel like if you’re at church or somewhere peaceful and it is a very pleasant place to be. There is many other images around my neighborhood that have the Virgin Mary and to me they all have important meaning. The painting also shows another important figure in the catholic religion by the name of Juan Diego he is paying attribute to the Virgin Mary by bowing down and bring flowers to her there are many stories behind this image. This image itself is very popular in the Catholic regions. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin states that the image changes its meaning that every image has an “Aura”. An Aura is a special meaning that an image has because of its origin. The paintings aura changes this is because of photography there is a huge difference between seeing an image on a picture or actually seeing the image or painting in person the surrounding of the object or image itself defines the image if you were to see a photograph of that same image the meaning of that picture would be completely different. The surroundings of the painting, well there wasn’t much around there is usually many people around on Tuesdays when the street is closed so that a market can sell fruits and other things. The reason why I picked that image was because it has always caught my attention every time I would pass around. The image dates back to the year 1531 it is said that Juan Diego saw the Virgin Mary on the hill of Tepeyac near what is now considered Mexico City. The Virgin Mary is also known as Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is know that the appearance of The Virgin Mary occurred 10 years after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire. Many Latinos call her Our Lady of Guadalupe because of her skin color. It is a combination between the native and Spaniards. This image has so many meanings to it but it is significant to the catholic religion because it is the first appearance of the Virgin Mary. When the image is viewed from a photo graph in a way it has almost the same meaning because it is a religious image but when your there where the painting is actually there it makes you feel different because of the surrounding it is true what it is stated in Benjamin’s article that cameras make the images lose their Aura the more it is mass produced it loses its true definition and what the image really means this might apply to all of the images, sculptures, and on and on. A religious image might not be affected in total by the aura because a religious image is always going to have the same meaning behind it because of its origin despite this in a way it counter argues itself because if you were to go to where the origin of the paintings they might have a completely different meaning to you.
My name is Raul Leal I am a freshmen at CSUN and my major is Manufacturing System Engineering