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

2. According to Sontag, photographs of atrocities are best received if they are:
(a) So artistically simple as to seem uncomposed.
(b) Close-ups of compelling scenes.
(c) Images of familiar places or people.
(d) Well-lit and high-contrast.

3. Sontag argues that we are most disappointed to discover that which type of photographs have been staged?
(a) Images depicting intimate climaxes.
(b) Images depicting spontaneous events.
(c) Images depicting everyday life.
(d) Images depicting gory battle scenes.

4. The protagonist of J'Accuse, the 1938 anti-war film, cries out which of the following in German and in English?
(a) "The horror!"
(b) "War is ugly!"
(c) "The face of war!"
(d) "Your sacrifices were in vain!"

5. Sontag calls for the reader's sympathy for the wounded Taliban soldier whose pain graced the cover of "The New York Times" by suggesting which of the following?
(a) The man deserved greater respect for serving his government in war.
(b) The man's suffering should be a private affair.
(c) The man was a human being.
(d) The man's loved ones would discover the images one day.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. The mass media bombarded viewers with shocking images because:

3. Sontag argues that creating lasting interest in war image requires which of the following?

4. 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?

5. Which of the following images was often thought to represent a mother, looking tellingly into the sky during an air raid of the Spanish Civil War?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Explain the purpose of photography collections such as Ernst Friedrich's "Krieg dem Kriege!" (War Against War!), and discuss how these works attempt to achieve this end.

3. Sontag identified two types of censorship which affect war photography. Describe both types of censorship. Which is most influential?

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

5. Explain Sontag's objection to the idea that a news broadcasting program can "give you the world." Why did she argue that compressing world news into broadcasted programming is bad?

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

7. Discuss the significance of Eddie Adams' photograph of the execution of a suspected Vietcong agent. What did Sontag say was particularly striking about this image and the circumstances of its creation?

8. 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?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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