Photo 1 Worksheet #2

Photo 1

Name _______________________________

History of Photography

You earned __________ out of 20 points.

Worksheet #2

Photographic Objectivity?

Define the following terms

Objectivity


Subjectivity


Positivism


Transparency

When the British public first saw the images Roger Fenton produced during the Crimean War, they were shocked because the photos did not meet up with the glorious images of war they were used to seeing in paintings. Why wasn't Fenton able to create the kind of images the public expected? Instead, what kinds of images did he produce?

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A London Times writer responded to the unexpected images Fenton produced with the remark, "whatever he represents from the field must be real." Explain this reaction. Why did early viewers take the authenticity of a photograph for granted?

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Jacob Riis. Street Arabs Sleeping. c. 1880s.	Eadward Muybridge. A Modoc Brave on the War Path. 1872 – 73.

Compare and contrast Jacob Riis’s Street Arabs Sleeping with Eadward Muybridge’s Modoc Brave. What is the moral message or intention behind each of the photographs? Both Rejlander’s and Riis’s images can be described as being “constructed” images, but for different reasons. Explain.

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In your opinion, can a photograph simply be a record of fact and truth? In other words, is it possible for a photograph to be completely objective? Why, or why not? Do you feel that early photographers such as Fenton, Curtis and Riis would have agreed with you? How are their works objective and/or subjective?

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