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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. Photography is published in books with _______ of white space and precise layouts, making it seem artistic.

2. "For the modernist promotion of naive art always contains a _______; that one continue to honor its hidden claim to sophistication."

3. Photography freed ____________ from the reproductive arts, according to Sontag's writing in this book.

4. Yet, photographs ________ what we often see more, according to the chapter.

5. In a sense, according to Sontag, photography actually helps to ____________ beauty as society defines it.

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What do some people think a photographer needs to 'become' in order to be proficient in his or her work?

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

5. How are photographs presented as art in the modern society, according to this chapter of the book?

6. What does the final chapter have to present about the idea of images in relation to reality, something which may not be fully supported by the text?

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

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

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

10. What do some philosophers - namely Balzac - have to say about the idea or the act of taking photographs?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Whitman strove to look beyond beauty and ugliness into the essential value of a person or object, something that photography can do as well.

Part 1: How do you define beauty in this world? Why?

Part 2: How do you define ugliness in this world? Why?

Part 3: Do you think it's possible to look beyond ugliness and beauty? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Photographs can capture beauty in all things, even things which are not supposed to be conventionally beautiful.

Part 1: How do you define the idea of beauty? Why?

Part 2: Why do you think it's important for some to capture images of beauty?

Part 3: How do beautiful images affect those who look at them? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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