October 2018
The full essay can be found on the website of Rundbrief Fotografie. Analoge und digitale Bildmedien in Archiven und Sammlungen as well as on the German version of Spectrum's website.
As part of the heated debate on media theory in the 1980s that has doubtless since become history, it was predicted that the photographic age was about to end. As we now know, things turned out differently. Yet despite this, the considerable nervousness with relation to media theory that prevailed then still persists today. Here, the two “Blade Runner” films are used as aids to look back at that time, to better understand the trepidation so characteristic of these debates and to place it in context. Subsequently, contemporary developments are given a cursory examination and, with the greater detachment that comes from passing time, a few key trends are defined.