Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Summary:

Benjamin describes how art went from being produced to being reproduced and how improvements in reproduction techniques have changed the aesthetic experience by removing the ritual and uniqueness associated with the art. In addition, reproduction makes art ubiquitous, available to the masses rather than just to the elite. He notes that modern audiences question art forms like film and photography, which he notes is a more valid artform for modern man than painting. Art, he says, must change with society.

Questions:

How does reproduction make art political? Because it's available to all?

Is photography more valid that painting for modern man? Why?

Values: Like Marx, he shifts away from art for the elite.
Taking the ritual out of experience is better for all.

Links: I can see Andy Warhol taking this a step further, lauding reproduction and doing away entirely with ritual.