enigmas

Photographs by Andrew Feenberg

 enigmas
Photographs by Andrew Feenberg

Copyright © 2005 by Andrew Feenberg

Design: Soyoung Park

Enigmas

Photographs by Andrew Feenberg

The walker in the city sees many things and understands
few of them. Snatches of conversation, glimpses of hap-
penings, intuitions of relations pass in kaleidoscopic varia-
tion. Amidst this cascade of mostly trivial experiences
there are a few gems, moments of significance that
deserve to be remembered or perhaps photographed.
The significant moments are signalled by a shock, the
shock of the unexpected or bizarre or profound.

Shock appears in the writings of the culture critic Walter

Benjamin as an essential category of modern life. The city
is the place of chance encounter, of the stimulus of the
new, of the visible movement of time as fashions change
with startling rapidity. With Baudelaire as his guide,
Benjamin explores the world of the flaneur. Shock is the
emphatic presence of the crowd, the sudden glance of
recognition between strangers, the vacant lot where used
to be a building, the parade of bums and beggars.

The flaneur with a camera can record a small sample of

this rich field of urban life. The photographer edits reali-
ty, leaving context on the cutting room floor. Only the
essential moment remains, and it is often as incompre-
hensible as it is evocative. If its original shock value pass-
es through the lens something is preserved from the
ephemera of the street. This exhibit presents the enig-
matic results.
Painter Painted
Paris

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 1

Hidden Beauty
San Jose

2 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Blue Buddha
Santa Fe

3 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Buddha Watches La Jolla

4 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 California
Reading
San Diego

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 5

 Before
the Show
Paris

6 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

Pride on Show
Paris

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 7

Dance of Color
San Diego

8 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Cafe Color
Paris

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 9

 Line of Sight
Rome

10 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Steady Aim Nara

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 11

 Long and
Winding
Marin

12 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Big Deal Santa Fe

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 13

 Father and Daughter Napa

14 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

Saudade
Paris

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 15

Flying Fish
La Jolla

16 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Shut Out
Mexico City

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 17

 Sweet Dreams
Paris

18 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

Light and Shadow La Jolla

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 19

 Patience
San Diego

20 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Kenzo
Paris

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 21

Wedding
Coronado

22 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

No Stopping
San Jose

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 23

 Notre Dame Paris

24 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

Romance
La Jolla

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 25

 Before the Concert Tokyo

26 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Hands Paris

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 27

The Point
La jolla

28 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

Writ Large
Paris

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 29

 Larger Paris

30 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

Masks
Paris

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 31

Eclipse
Paris

32 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

A-paco-lypse
Paris

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 33

 The Constant
Spectator
Paris

34 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

Cine Citta
Rome

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 35

 The Power
of Art
Tokyo

36 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Success
Tokyo

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 37

Anima
Paris

38 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

Girl Power
Tokyo

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 39

 Little Devils
Paris

40 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Mc Do
Kyoto

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 41

Nude
Paris

42 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

The Apero
Vaison-la-Romaine

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 43

 Drinking Buddies
La Jolla

44 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Boshi
Tokyo

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 45

Kimono Time
Tokyo

46 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

So Lovely
Tokyo

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 47

The Guys
Tokyo

48 enigmas Andrew Feenberg

 Book End
La Jolla

enigmas Andrew Feenberg 49

The enigmas exhibit opened
February 3, 2005
at the Exposure Gallery
851 beatty street, Vancouver
British Columbia, Canada.

Photo: Sharon Weremiuk

Andrew Feenberg is Canada Research Chair in the Philosophy
of Technology in the School of Communication of Simon
Fraser University. He has taught at San Diego State University,
the University of California, Irvine, the University of Paris,
the University of Tokyo, Duke University and the State
University of New York at Buffalo.

He is the author of Heidegger and Marcuse, Transforming

Technology, Questioning Technology, Alternative Modernity,
Lukács, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory, co-author of
When Poetry Ruled the Streets, and co-editor of Technology and
the Politics of Knowledge, Community in the Digital Age, and
Modernity and Technology. He lives in Vancouver, British
Columbia and La Jolla, California.