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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. Photographs in China are seen as another extension of _____________, which is why the film was misunderstood.

2. Who invited Antonioni to make a film about the Chinese life and its culture?

3. Both painting and photography share a devotion to traditional __________ within their finished pieces.

4. Photographs are presented as sophisticated ____________, though they are made with little more than a click of a button.

5. Balzac was one of many philosophers who believed that photographs are somehow permanently invasive of the process of ________.

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the progression of photography in relation to its artistic status, according to this chapter?

2. Sontag makes a bold assertion in regards to photography and the work of some artists. What does she assert?

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

4. What does this chapter seem to believe the current definition of modern society is in relation to images and things?

5. What does photography have the power to do to truly beautiful things, according to this chapter?

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

7. What did the film Chung Kuo include that helped to present an accurate, though not flattering, picture of Chinese life?

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

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

10. In 1839, why was photography briefly attacked by those in society, according to the history lessons of this chapter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sontag makes the statement that in a person being photographed in a sexual way, it's almost as if it's a violation or a rape.

Part 1: Why do you think a photograph might be like a rape?

Part 2: What happens if a person consents to having their picture taken? Is that still a 'rape' of sorts? Why or why not?

Part 3: Do you feel violated when someone takes a picture of you? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Whitman strove to see what was similar in all beings as opposed to what was unique about people, it seems.

Part 1: Do you think people are unique or are we all the same? Why or why not?

Part 2: How does the perception of the world change when you realize all people are the same?

Part 3: Why do you think it's important to see similarities among people? Or isn't it?

Essay Topic 3

In Plato's cave, the prisoners are only able to see the shadows of what is real, not the actual objects.

Part 1: Why do you think Sontag used this image to begin a discussion of photography?

Part 2: How would life be different if you could only see shadows?

Part 3: Do you think you'd like a world in which all you saw were the shadows? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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