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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. Modern photography seems to admit that __________ is the sum total of all art in photography.

2. The preference in question #154 is actually used as the very definition of modern __________, according to Sontag.

3. This chapter says that society seems to prefer ________ to things, and continues to repeat this idea throughout the text.

4. The real problem with bringing ________ photographs into mainstream is a procedure which contradicts the nature of most photographs.

5. The __________ are not the same between painting and photography, though the devotion may be.

Short Essay Questions

1. What do most claim about the intentions of photography, according to the long essays in this chapter?

2. What do some people think a photographer needs to 'become' in order to be proficient in his or her work?

3. Why are photographs considered to be a superior form of recording information, even more so than writing?

4. What do some philosophers - namely Balzac - have to say about the idea or the act of taking photographs?

5. What do cameras often reveal in the subject of the picture or in the object being photographed?

6. Why is a photograph of an object a more reliable way of looking at an object, according to the text in this chapter?

7. What do photographs do to reality, according to this final chapter of the book as written by Sontag?

8. What does a photographic portrait not need to do, instead it can mingle documentation with artistic rendering?

9. What is difficult, if not impossible to do when it comes to looking at photographs, as opposed to looking at paintings?

10. What does Sontag see as the central tension in photography, according to the discussion in this chapter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Diane Arbus took pictures of people in society who might be considered freaks, something Sontag seems to judge.

Part 1: How do you define the idea of 'freaks'?

Part 2: Do you think there is value in the Arbus pictures? Why or why not?

Part 3: Do you agree that those who are not 'normal' as defined by society are freaks? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Often, photographs are offered as evidence that something occurred at a certain time.

Part 1: Why do you think photographs are thought to be so definitive?

Part 2: How do you think photographs should be used in everyday life?

Part 3: Do you think something is real when you have a picture of it? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Whitman strove to look beyond beauty and ugliness into the essential value of a person or object, something that photography can do as well.

Part 1: How do you define beauty in this world? Why?

Part 2: How do you define ugliness in this world? Why?

Part 3: Do you think it's possible to look beyond ugliness and beauty? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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