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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. Sontag observes that "Here Is New York" had no need for captions, but suggests that:
(a) Many visitors were offended by the images they saw because they did not have a caption to explain them.
(b) The photographers complained that their work did not receive proper explanation.
(c) One day, they will be necessary for those who did not experience the tragedy.
(d) Many people misunderstood the images.

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

3. After World War I, the general public thought of the War as:
(a) A clean, necessary and effectively fought war.
(b) A hopeless waste of human energy and life.
(c) The war to end all wars.
(d) An atrocity committed on the world stage.

4. Sontag notes that at the time Virginia Woolf wrote "Three Guineas," war journalism was different than it is now. How was it different?
(a) It was less prevalent.
(b) It was more disturbing.
(c) It was less graphic.
(d) It was more common.

5. "The Killing Fields" depicts which of the following?
(a) The dead and dying of the Korean War.
(b) The atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.
(c) The mass deaths during the Spanish Civil War.
(d) The casualties of Bunker Hill.

Short Answer Questions

1. In its early days, photography was thought to:

2. Sontag notes that images of war most significantly influenced which of the following groups?

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

4. Faced with "information overload," people remember a photograph because it is a quick way of storing information, much like which of the following strategies?

5. Sontag argues that witnessing war atrocities from afar is a unique experience characteristic of:

Short Essay Questions

1. Using the example of genocides and AIDS in Africa, Sontag argued that images of suffering in far-off places carry a double meaning. What is this double meaning?

2. Discuss the significance of the Magnum Photo Agency, founded in Paris in 1947. What was the group initially founded to do? How did they influence the development of photojournalism?

3. Sontag discussed the captions to Goya's "Los Desastres de la Guerra" (The Disasters of War). Explain the significance of these messages to the viewer. How do these captions affect the impact of the image?

4. Discuss one way in which the development of technology during and after the Vietnam War has affected the veracity of photographs.

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

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

7. Discuss the reaction of the British public to the image of trenches of unburied bodies taken 10 days after a British defeat during the Boer War. What does this reaction say about the sensibility of the public?

8. How did war journalism change during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39)? How did the coverage of this war more closely resemble modern media coverage of conflicts?

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

10. Discuss the purpose of Virginia Woolf's "Three Guineas" as explained by Sontag, and explain why Sontag opens her book with this reference.

(see the answer keys)

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