Photography in Europe was largely guided by the notions of the picture

Question

Photography in Europe was largely guided by the notions of the picturesque, the important, and the beautiful. Americans, less convinced of the permanence of any basic social arrangements, experts on the “reality” of change, have more often made photography partisan. Pictures were taken not only to show what should be admired but to reveal what needs to be confronted and fixed up. American photography implies a less stable relation with history; and a relation to social reality that is both more hopeful and more predatory.

The hopeful side is exemplified in the use of photographs in America to awaken conscience. Lewis W. Hine was appointed staff photographer to the National Child Labor Committee, which was preparing to recommend legislation; his photographs of children working in mills in the 1910s helped make child labor illegal. In the case of Roy Stryker’s Farm Security Administration project, the camera was a way of “learning” about the rural poor, so the New Deal bureaucrats could figure out how to help them. But even at its most moralistic, documentary photography was always  imperious  in another sense. Both detached traveler’s report and the more forthright angry muckraking reflect the urge to appropriate an exotic reality. And no reality is allowed the right to resist appropriation, whether it is scandalous or beautiful or picturesque.

The predatory side of photography is at the heart of the alliance between photography and tourism. The case of the American Indians is the most brutal. Discreet, serious amateurs had been operating since the end of the Civil War; the opening wedge of an army of tourists eager for “a goal shot” of Indian life. The tourists invaded the Indians’ privacy, photographing sacred dances and places, paying the Indians to pose, and making them so self-conscious that they revised their ceremonies.

But native ceremonies that are changed by the tourists are not so different from a city scandal that is corrected because someone photographs it. In so far as the muckrakers got results, they too altered what they photographed; indeed, photographing reality was one way of altering it.  
 1 
1) Which of the following sentences would most likely follow the last sentence of the passage?

A) The photographic image is only superficially realistic and depends for its effect mainly on formal relations of light and shade.
B) The photographer’s primary motive is impatience for change; his stock-in-trade is the temporary moment.
C) Photography is inimical to history, because the eye is inimical to the understanding mind.
D) A photograph cannot truly depict the object whose image it catches.
E) The photographer both loots and preserves, denounces and consecrates.
 2 
2) The passage is primarily concerned with

A) the influence of European photographers on American photographers
B) the difference between European and American photography
C) the use of photography to influence legislation
D) attitudes implicit in American photography
E) evidence provided by photography of the existence of poverty
 3 
3) Which of the following best expresses the meaning of “imperious” in the highlighted text?

A) Righteous
B) Objective
C) Exclusive
D) Royal
E) Arrogant
 4 
4) It can be inferred that the author calls photography predatory because it

A) changes the reality that the photographer studies
B) exposes the inner secrets of its subjects
C) attempts to create beautiful images to enrich the human environment
D) reduces its subjects to their momentary appearance
E) distorts the natural environment on which the photographer depends

ID 16909

Harsh9676 · Accepted Answer

Hi  LipsaTripathy ,

For Q4: Read this part from the passage: "The tourists invaded the Indians’ privacy, photographing sacred dances and places, paying the Indians to pose, and making them so self-conscious that  they revised their ceremonies. ".

I am sure you would have chosen E instead of A. For RC, we need to be very critical in analyzing the answer choices. This is one such example. Here in Choice E, distorts meaning depicting false information. But, the author never mentioned about distorting any reality, he merely said that the photographers changes the reality by forcing the subjects to change their environment & traditions, making it a new reality.

For Q3: I got this wrong too. I think if you read slowly and carefully this part, you would understand why it means arrogant.

" But even at its most moralistic, documentary photography was always  imperious  in another sense. Both detached traveler’s report and the more forthright angry muckraking reflect the urge to appropriate an exotic reality."

BTW Muckracking means >> reform minded journalism..(Googled)

Hope this helps.

Thanks
Harsh

LipsaTripathy · Answer

Hello,
Can anyone please give an explanation to question 3 and question 4.
Thanks.

bM22 · Answer

Hi  LipsaTripathy ,

3) Which of the following best expresses the meaning of “imperious” in the highlighted text?

A) Righteous
B) Objective
C) Exclusive
D) Royal
 E) Arrogant

Correct Answer: E,
 Explanation: Let's try it using elimination technique. Author says: " But even at its most moralistic,  documentary photography was always imperious in another sense.Both detached traveler’s report and the more forthright angry muckraking reflect the urge to appropriate an exotic reality.", implying that on one hand, the photography was used to highlight important issues, so that they could be resolved, on the other, it did reflect an urge to publicize scandalous realities, which in turn implies, that we are looking for a word which is not similar in sentiment to moralistic, thus reducing our options to just arrogant, making E a better choice.
Also arrogant is a synonym of imperious.

4) It can be inferred that the author calls photography predatory because it

A) changes the reality that the photographer studies
 B) exposes the inner secrets of its subjects
C) attempts to create beautiful images to enrich the human environment
D) reduces its subjects to their momentary appearance
E) distorts the natural environment on which the photographer depends

Correct Answer : A,
 Explanation: can be inferred from the lines: "The predatory side of photography is at the heart of the alliance between photography and tourism. ..............The tourists invaded the Indians’ privacy, photographing sacred dances and places, paying the Indians to pose,  and making them so self-conscious that they revised their ceremonies ." 
Options B, D: incorrect, as not discussed in the passage.
Option C, E: incorrect, as not true w.r.t what's mentioned about predatory photography.

Hope this Helps.
Thanks.

Harsh2111s · Answer

VeritasKarishma   GMATNinja 
How to eliminate option C and how E is correct ?

bM22 · Answer

Hi  Harsh2111s ,

Let me know if this helps.

The last 2 paras of the passage discuss the predatory side of photography and how it impacted the American Indians. The author goes on to discuss how the tourists invaded the privacy of Indians and photographed their ceremonies, making Indians, so conscious that they had to revise certain of their rituals. This change in native rituals is not very different from the changes that occur when a city scandal is photographed, implying that photography could be used for better or worse.

Now the sentence that to follow the last para, should be the one that implies that photography could be both boon and bane, depending on how its used. On one hand it could cause changes in native rituals, and on the other, it could help awaken social conscience by revealing some of the worst scandals in most apt way, thus making E, the correct answer.

Option C is incorrect. It would have been true if more focus was given on the ritual modifications or some other example providing more information about photography has impacted history, but in the last para it is combined with an argument of how photography has influenced in causing changes by revealing some of the worst scandals, there by showing us two sides of the same coin.

Thanks.

Hea234ven · Answer

Regarding the last question, the word 'predatory' means looting something (implies that breaking privacy). So how can 'predatory' relate to 'changing the reality'?

bM22 · Answer

Hi  Hea234ven ,

The word Predatory is mentioned in the passage, w.r.t :

1. How the tourists invaded the privacy of the Indians, photographing sacred dances and places, making them so self conscious, that Indians had to revise certain ceremonies. 
2. How photography helped(example present in the passage) awakening social conscience by revealing some of the worst scandals.

These change in rituals and changes because of revelation of scandals are being referred to as the change in reality here.

Hope this Helps.
Thanks.

ueh55406 · Answer

I actually have an issue with this OA and explanation, the sentence you very well mentioned actually supports another option:

The predatory side of photography is at the heart of the alliance between photography and tourism. ..............The tourists invaded the Indians’ privacy, photographing sacred dances and places,  paying the Indians to pose  :- supports the option which states that the photographer reduces the subject to momentary appearance.

anyone who can shed some light on this one? thanks.

AnirudhaS · Answer

I feel you here, fell for the same myself.

However, I have made peace with this because of the two following reasons - 
1. Any picture taken reduces its subjects to their momentary appearance. Not just a predatory side of taking pictures.
2. If the Indians pose, that inherently means they are changing reality. Otherwise they wouldn't pose and continue their normal life.

Sorry that is the best I can help you with.

Harshjha001 · Answer

How do we negate the option E in Question 4 ?
Making the indians pose while celebrating is distortion of natural environment.

Can someone explain me this ?

Vivek1707 · Answer

Hello could someone please post the official explanation of all the answers please. Further, request any expert to provide an explanation to Question 1

tkorzhan1995 · Answer

GMATNinja , can you please explain what is the rationale for E for Q1? Why D should be eliminated?

nikitathegreat · Answer

Can someone pls explain explain last para of the passage.
Also, Q1 and Q4 pls

MissionAdmit · Answer

Q1: 
The last sentence is talking about how photographers alter what they photograph and thus alter reality. The next following lines should take this concept forward 
A- Talks about photographic images, incorrect 
B- Talks about the photographer's primary motive, not relevant 
C- Photography is hostile to history because the eye is inimical. This conclusion isn't relevant to what we are discussing 
D- The photograph's depiction of the object is not relevant 
E- This shows the dual nature of a photographer who can show awaken the conscience as well manipulate the Indians. Correct

Q2- D. This was easy

Q3 - E. " Imperious" followed by " detached reporter" makes this the most obvious choice

Q4- I struggled between A and D. But finally picked A.

A - Photography changes the reality that photographer studies - Yes. As mentioned in (P3) making Indian conscious of their rituals and then altering what they photograph(P4)

D - Reduce its subject to momentary appearance. The para doesn't talk about how Indian or other subjects were reduced to only a momentary appearance and the truth was vastly different. It does say manipulation but doesn't say that the moment being captured contrasts with the reality

nikitathegreat · Answer

Can someone explain Q4 -  GMATNinja

GMATNinja · Answer

Question 4 
 
We're given an explanation of the predatory side of photography in paragraph three, where we see a discussion about the relationship between photography and tourism, giving the exploitation of American Indians as an example. It then concludes with a line about how tourists served to change the very ceremonies they photographed by making the participants self-conscious.

(A) does a decent job of capturing this idea. If an American Indian ceremony was one thing before a nosy tourist photographed it, and then something else afterwards, it stands to reason that photography is changing reality, right?

And the others don't even come close to addressing anything mentioned in the passage about predatory photography. So (A) appears to be the best of the bunch.

I hope that helps!

Ilanchezhiyan · Answer

Why can't the answer for Qn. 4 be option B ? I understand it changes reality. But as the underlined excerpt from the para below suggests, 
 "The tourists  invaded the Indians’ privacy , photographing sacred dances and places, paying the Indians to pose, and making them so self-conscious that they revised their ceremonies." 
it exposed their secrets?

PeachSnapple1 · Answer

Very good question! I fell for B myself. I got to B after reading   My thought was, if those are considered sacred, it means those dances and places are kinda an inner secret to the Indians. And if anyone took a picture of those sacred dances and places somehow, he/she may expose those images by sharing them online or with friends, thus exposing the Indians' inner secret. Furthermore, A says   - the part   caught me off guard as I believe that if I change something, the outcome is still a part of my reality. I mean, from a philosophical standpoint, no one can really change the reality - they can only change the expectation, the tradition, the policy, etc. Well, unless you have the Izanagi skill from the Sharingan from the Manga series Naruto.

Anyway, thank you for being patient with my rambling. I swear sometimes I am just not convinced with some of the explanations in some of the GMAT answers, but oh well.  
 Anyway, here is the OG explanation for B  inner  secrets.] So apparently, in B,   means that you have to expose the deep down secret from people. So merely invading the privacy might not mean the same thing, nor does photographing sacred dances and places (it turns out that sacred does not mean inner secret...)

That's the best I can do, hope you find some of it useful.

PeachSnapple1 · Answer

The last paragraph is kinda convoluted     Why must the GMAT write it this way...

By    , does it mean after a photographer capture a photo exposing a city scandal - whatever that means, the scandal will gather attention from the public and cease to exist, like in the second paragraph    ?

But why would the muckrakers (a kind of journalist who exposes corruption and scandal) alter what they photographed? Does that mean that they took a picture of whatever, then "photoshopped" it to serve their agenda, i.e. to expose a child labor in a city by making the photos more dramatic. Don't the last two sentences of the second paragraph say    ? Doesn't it mean that the journalist will capture the reality, no matter how ugly or beautiful,  without 'photoshopping'  to ultimately show what the world really likes?

In short, the second paragraph says the muckrakers capture the true reality, but then the last sentence says the muckrakers altered what they photographed. Those two details kinda trip me off, or maybe I'm just overthinking, or maybe I'm missing a point.

Photography in Europe was largely guided by the notions of the picture

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GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

Photography in Europe was largely guided by the notions of the picture

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