PT141.S1.P2.Q15

PrepTest 141 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 15

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From a critical discussion of the work of Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

P1

What Cameron called her "fancy-subject" pictures—photographs in which two or more costumed sitters enacted, under Cameron's direction, scenes from the Bible, mythology, Shakespeare, or Tennyson—bear unmistakable traces of the often comical conditions under which they were taken. …

Intro to Topic · Cameron’s "fancy-subject" picture
Picture of people in costume enacting scenes from the bible, mythology, or literature.
In many respects they have more connection to the family album pictures of recalcitrant relatives who have been herded together for the obligatory group picture than they do to the masterpieces of Western painting. In Raphael and Giotto there are no infant Christs whose faces are blurred because they moved, or who are looking at the viewer with frank hatred. …
Details · Photos more like family album than masterpieces of art
These traces, of course, are what give the photographs their life and charm. If Cameron had succeeded in her project of making seamless works of illustrative art, her work would be among the curiosities of Victorian photography—like Oscar Gustave Rejlander's extravagantly awful The Two Ways of Life—rather than among its most vital images.

Main Point · But these details are what makes Cameron's photos important
I'm guessing this is the main point and the rest of the passage will support this.
P2

It is precisely the camera's realism—its stubborn obsession with the surface of things—that has given Cameron's theatricality and artificiality its atmosphere of truth. …

Premise · Cameron's photos capture truth
It is the truth of the sitting, rather than the fiction which all the dressing up was in aid of, that wafts out of these wonderful and strange, not-quite-in-focus photographs. They are what they are: pictures of housemaids and nieces and husbands and village children who are dressed up as Mary Madonnas and infant Jesuses and John the Baptists and Lancelots and Guineveres and trying desperately hard to sit still. The way each sitter endures his or her ordeal is the collective action of the photograph, its "plot" so to speak. …
Premise · The truth is in the taking of the photos
Housemaids and family members playing dress up and trying to get through the ordeal of posing for the photoshoot. That's the truth that Cameron's photos captured.
When we look at a narrative painting we can suspend our disbelief; when we look at a narrative photograph we cannot. We are always aware of the photograph's doubleness—of each figure's imaginary and real personas. Theater can transcend its doubleness, can make us believe (for at least some of the time) that we are seeing only Lear or Medea. Still photographs of theatrical scenes can never escape being pictures of actors.

Premise · Cameron's photos unlike painting or theater
In painting and theater, we can suspend disbelief thinking we're only seeing, for example, Jesus or King Lear
P3

What gives Cameron's pictures of actors their special quality—their status as treasures of photography of an unfathomably peculiar sort—is their singular combination of amateurism and artistry. …

Premise · Combination of amateurism and artistry
That's what makes Cameron's pictures special.
In The Passing of Arthur, for example, the mast and oar of the makeshift boat representing a royal barge are obviously broomsticks and the water is white muslin drapery. But these details are insignificant. For once, the homely truth of the sitting gives right of place to the romantic fantasy of its director. The picture, a night scene, is magical and mysterious. While Cameron's fancy-subject pictures have been compared to poor amateur theatricals, The Passing of Arthur puts one in mind of good amateur theatricals one has seen, and recalls with shameless delight.

Example · The Passing of Arthur
It's amateur but it's done very well.
Passage Style
Single position
Spotlight
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15.

The main purpose of the passage is

a

to chronicle Cameron's artistic development as a photographer, which culminated in her masterpiece The Passing of Arthur

The author doesn’t chronicle Cameron’s artistic development. We don’t get any discussion of her origin, her artistic influences, works she produced prior to The Passing of Arthur, etc.

4%
b

to argue that the tension between Cameron's aims and the results she achieved in some of her works enhances the works' aesthetic value

This best captures the author’s purpose, which is to tell us that the combination of amateurism and artistry in Cameron’s work makes them interesting. The author indicates that the tension between Cameron’s aims (to portray scenes from fictional works) and the results she achieved (clearly amateurish, realistic pictures) gives her work a peculiar charm.

74%
c

to show that Cameron's essentially theatrical vision accounts for both the strengths and the weaknesses of her photographic oeuvre

The author doesn’t focus on the “theatrical vision” of Cameron. In addition, the primary purpose isn’t about Cameron’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s just about certain features that make Cameron’s work interesting.

17%
d

to explain why Cameron's project of acquiring for photography the prestige accorded to painting was doomed to failure

We’re never told that Cameron wanted to help photography gain prestige.

1%
e

to defend Cameron's masterpiece The Passing of Arthur against its detractors by showing that it transcends the homely details of its setting

It’s not clear that there are any detractors of The Passing of Arthur. In any case, The Passing of Arthur is simply one example of Cameron’s work. The overall purpose doesn’t concern this specific example.

4%

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