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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Photography has become a bit of a surrealist art, not a/an __________ art, but close to it, according to Sontag.

2. What is the only thing the people in the cave who are chained to the wall can see?

3. With the help of captions, photographs can be made to speak, but the caption is obviously ____________.

4. American photographers feel the country is simply too _______ to be understood - instead it must simply be catalogued.

5. Alfred Stieglitz produced photographs which supported Whitman's ideas, termed euphoric _____________.

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did photography come to be seen as a type of copulation with the material world?

2. What was the goal of the Farm Service Administration photographic project in 1935 as described in this chapter?

3. Why is surrealism not necessarily a universal art form, according to this particular chapter?

4. What did Steichen thus do with his photographs in terms of creating importance with the subject of the picture?

5. What did Edward Steichen photograph in order to show that objects aren't always as simple as they appear?

6. Are people with children more or less likely to own a camera, according to Sontag's own findings?

7. What are the two groups into which photographers can be categorized, according to the text in this chapter?

8. How does photography make the photographer incapable of intervening in a situation?

9. How are photographs usually held as definitive evidence in the world, according to Sontag?

10. How did Whitman want to see society as a whole, according to Sontag's writings in this chapter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Poetry and photography are two pieces of art which are subject to interpretation. The author might have one intention, but the audience may find another.

Part 1: Why do you think photography is open to interpretation?

Part 2: Why do you think poetry is open to interpretation?

Part 3: Do you think poetry or photography is more open to interpretation? Why do you choose the answer you do?

Essay Topic 2

Sontag points out that some photographers are like scientists, documenting and examining the world.

Part 1: Why do you think photographers could be called scientists?

Part 2: Do you think photography is necessary in science? Why or why not?

Part 3: Why do you think it's important to document the world? Or isn't it?

Essay Topic 3

Photographs can capture beauty in all things, even things which are not supposed to be conventionally beautiful.

Part 1: How do you define the idea of beauty? Why?

Part 2: Why do you think it's important for some to capture images of beauty?

Part 3: How do beautiful images affect those who look at them? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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