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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Although the camera captures the scene in front of it, Sontag suggests that the ______ may manipulate the image.
(a) Press.
(b) Media.
(c) Photographer.
(d) Editor.

2. Sontag discusses reactions to the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Which of the following is NOT a reaction Sontag recalls hearing?
(a) "It felt like a dream."
(b) "It felt surreal."
(c) "It felt unreal."
(d) "It felt like a movie."

3. Sontag argues that the photograph, unlike the written word, is:
(a) Subject to interpretation.
(b) Artistically inferior.
(c) Always objective.
(d) Politically charged.

4. The Brady war pictures were taken of which of the following wars?
(a) The American Civil War.
(b) The Crimean War.
(c) The Spanish Civil War.
(d) World War I.

5. The first war photographer, whose work garnered him the position as "official photographer" of the Crimean War, was which of the following?
(a) Roger Fenton.
(b) Edmund Gosse.
(c) Ernst Friedrich.
(d) Robert Capa.

Short Answer Questions

1. The conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s stood out to many onlookers for which of the following reasons?

2. Sontag notes that post-colonial Africa is most commonly known to the American public based on a series of which of the following groups of images?

3. Which technological advancement changed the way war was photographed after World War I?

4. Which was the first war to be "covered" by professional war journalists at the front lines?

5. Which of the following included close-up images of soldiers wounded by war in his/her 1938 film?

Short Essay Questions

1. Sontag stated that the photographer's intentions do not determine the message of the photograph. Discuss the contributing factors which influence the reception of photographs in the media.

2. According to Sontag, how does a photograph in the news media differ from a written account? How does the audience change?

3. How do captions sway interpretations of images? Discuss one of the examples Sontag provides in Chapter 1.

4. Sontag agrees with Woolf's assertion that the educated class has failed to understand war. How is this a failure of empathy or imagination?

5. Explain how being a "spectator of calamities" occurring in far-off places is a "quintessentially modern experience."

6. According to Sontag, how are photographs of victims a form of rhetoric? What is their purpose or message? How do they function to convey this message?

7. Sontag asserted that "cameras have always kept company with death." What did she mean by this assertion?

8. Discuss the significance of "Here is New York," the exhibit of photographs taken on September 11th during the collapse of the World Trade Center.

9. Why do images of pain challenge us to look without flinching? According to Sontag, what purpose does this serve?

10. According to Sontag, how are standards for journalism determined in an era of tele-controlled warfare?

(see the answer keys)

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