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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. What kind of film did Antonioni make about the Chinese culture and family life?

2. The film director also focused on the most often ____________ features of Chinese life which were also humanizing.

3. The question becomes whether photography is a ___________ process of documentation via machine, or not.

4. Photographs make ____________ safe and concrete, according to Sontag. Some prefer photographs to reality.

5. Who is NOT one of the authors presented in the section about photography in the literary world?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What do the Chinese tastes prefer to see in their films, which made the Italian director a poor choice for the documentary on Chinese life?

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

6. What discussion does false photography illuminate in regards to the essential division in photography?

7. What do some primitive tribes think about the idea of taking pictures of other people, according to this chapter?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Photographs can be made to speak with the help of captions beside them, but are these captions always necessary?

Part 1: Why do you think it's necessary to include captions with photographs?

Part 2: How do you think the photograph is changed by the introduction of captions?

Part 3: Do you think captions are necessary to include with pictures? 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 the end, Sontag points out that some people seem to prefer photographic images to reality.

Part 1: How are photographs superior to reality?

Part 2: Why do you think reality might be less appealing to others?

Part 3: Do you prefer photographs or reality? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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