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#34736
Passage Discussion
Paragraph One:
Paragraph One:
The author begins the passage by introducing the subject of the passage, the “fancy-subject” photographs of Victorian artist Julia Margaret Cameron. The paragraph defines what Cameron meant by “fancy-subject” photographs, and then tells us that the photographs are more like awkward family photographs than masterpieces of Western painting. However, the author continues, the very “traces of the often comical conditions” under which the photographs were taken are what give Cameron’s work its life and charm, making her photographs among the most vital images of Victorian photography, unlike the “extravagantly awful” work of another Victorian photographer, Oscar Gustave Rejlander, who actually succeeded in making “seamless works of illustrative art.”
Paragraph Two:
In this paragraph, the author compares the ability of photographs to transcend the “doubleness” of narrative and reality with the ability of paintings and theatrical productions to do so. Unlike paintings and theatrical productions, photographs of actors are never able to transcend the doubleness, and they are always pictures of actors. This inability comes from the camera’s “stubborn obsession with the surface of things.” Cameron’s photographs capture the “truth of the sitting,” in which the subjects of the picture, though dressed up as some character, try desperately to remain still. Their collective ordeal to withstand the taking of the photograph is the action or plot of the picture. A narrative painting or theatrical production can produce the suspension of disbelief, but the truth of the sitting will always preserve the photograph’s doubleness.
Paragraph Three:
Although the doubleness of the photographs would seem to represent failure, the author explains in the final paragraph that it is this very combination of amateurism and artistry that mark her pictures as “treasures of photography of an unfathomably peculiar sort.” Pointing to the example of a particular work, The Passing of Arthur, the author argues that the “homely truth” of the sitting, including its unconvincing props, is pushed aside by Cameron’s romantic fantasy. Cameron’s “fancy-subject” photographs are like “good amateur theatricals one has seen, and recalls with shameless delight.”
VIEWSTAMP Analysis
The Viewpoints presented in the passage are those of the Author and, briefly, unnamed critics who compare Cameron’s pictures to poor amateur theatricals.
The Structure of the passage is as follows:
The Main Point of the passage is that Cameron’s fancy-subject pictures are treasures of photography because their combination of amateurish production and artistry give them a charm and vitality that is atypical of Victorian era photographs.
Paragraph One:
Paragraph One:
The author begins the passage by introducing the subject of the passage, the “fancy-subject” photographs of Victorian artist Julia Margaret Cameron. The paragraph defines what Cameron meant by “fancy-subject” photographs, and then tells us that the photographs are more like awkward family photographs than masterpieces of Western painting. However, the author continues, the very “traces of the often comical conditions” under which the photographs were taken are what give Cameron’s work its life and charm, making her photographs among the most vital images of Victorian photography, unlike the “extravagantly awful” work of another Victorian photographer, Oscar Gustave Rejlander, who actually succeeded in making “seamless works of illustrative art.”
Paragraph Two:
In this paragraph, the author compares the ability of photographs to transcend the “doubleness” of narrative and reality with the ability of paintings and theatrical productions to do so. Unlike paintings and theatrical productions, photographs of actors are never able to transcend the doubleness, and they are always pictures of actors. This inability comes from the camera’s “stubborn obsession with the surface of things.” Cameron’s photographs capture the “truth of the sitting,” in which the subjects of the picture, though dressed up as some character, try desperately to remain still. Their collective ordeal to withstand the taking of the photograph is the action or plot of the picture. A narrative painting or theatrical production can produce the suspension of disbelief, but the truth of the sitting will always preserve the photograph’s doubleness.
Paragraph Three:
Although the doubleness of the photographs would seem to represent failure, the author explains in the final paragraph that it is this very combination of amateurism and artistry that mark her pictures as “treasures of photography of an unfathomably peculiar sort.” Pointing to the example of a particular work, The Passing of Arthur, the author argues that the “homely truth” of the sitting, including its unconvincing props, is pushed aside by Cameron’s romantic fantasy. Cameron’s “fancy-subject” photographs are like “good amateur theatricals one has seen, and recalls with shameless delight.”
VIEWSTAMP Analysis
The Viewpoints presented in the passage are those of the Author and, briefly, unnamed critics who compare Cameron’s pictures to poor amateur theatricals.
The Structure of the passage is as follows:
- Paragraph 1: Introduce Cameron and her “fancy-subject” pictures. Present the author’s counter-intuitive view that Cameron’s pictures are among the Victorian era’s most charming and vital because of their inability to convey seamless illustrations of narrative subjects.
Paragraph 2: Expand on the effect of the camera’s realism, the amateurish production, and the “truth of the sitting” on Cameron’s work. Compare narrative paintings and theatrical performances to still photographs of theatrical scenes.
Paragraph 3: Summarize explicitly the author’s position that Cameron’s photographs are “treasures of photography” precisely because of their mix of amateurism and artistry. Provide an example of Cameron’s work to show how Cameron’s artistic vision can overcome the poor props and sets of her pictures to make her work shamelessly enjoyable.
The Main Point of the passage is that Cameron’s fancy-subject pictures are treasures of photography because their combination of amateurish production and artistry give them a charm and vitality that is atypical of Victorian era photographs.