#13 - Global Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=12785)

The correct answer choice is (E)

While at first glance a prephrase seems difficult in this question given the broadly worded question stem, we can narrow our focus to the information contained in the passage indicating a way in which Cameron’s era was different than other eras. What makes Cameron’s photography different from that of today is not her amateurish props or subject matter, but rather the “ordeal” of sitting for a photograph that her models endured. Our prephrase is that the correct answer choice will focus on the ordeal of sitting for a photograph in Cameron’s era.

Answer choice (A): Cameron’s use of the term “fancy-subject” pictures implies that the subject of her photographs differed from the typical subject of photographs. While we cannot be certain that photographs normally documented contemporary life, that appears to be the implication of her use of the term “fancy-subject”. At the very least, the passage contains no evidence indicating that there was little interest in documenting contemporary life.

Answer choice (B): The passage does not tell us whether Cameron was wealthy, nor does it tell us that she was an amateur photographer. Rather, all we know is that she was a photographer whose fancy-subject photographs had an amateurish quality. Even if we were to know that Cameron was a wealthy amateur, we could not infer from that information that photography was practiced mainly by wealthy amateurs.

Answer choice (C): Although the passage did discuss photographs of actors, there is no indication that publicity stills of actors were coming into fashion during Cameron’s time. Cameron’s own photographs were not publicity stills of actors, but rather reenactments of dramatic scenes using ordinary people as the models.

Answer choice (D): While it is true that Cameron used ordinary people, rather than professionals, as models, we cannot say that there were no such professionals in Cameron’s day.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice, and it is supported by the author’s description of the ordeal of sitting for one of Cameron’s photographs.

[medialaw111516]

This one confused me because I narrowed it down to E and D, but ultimately picked D because they both seemed uncertain. Nowhere in there did it say it took a lot of time or anything about time and these photos. Yes. it said ordeal, but what if the ordeal was the position they had to sit in or the flash of the camera or they don't like being photographed etc. I feel like for a MBT question, getting to E took some additional information that we did not have.

[James Finch]

Hi Media Law,

This is a tough question, of the type commonly seen around the end of a set, especially in humanities passages like this one that focus on one artist. Oftentimes the correct answer choice relies upon seemingly insignificant information that is presented as background in the first paragraph, as (E) does here. It's the sentence about blurred faces and looks of frank hatred in the middle of the first paragraph that provides support to the idea that photographs took a while to be taken back in the Victorian era. It's also brought up again in the middle of the second paragraph, which references children desperately trying to sit still.

(D) is a negative answer ("There were no X"), which is much tougher in general to support; even if the passage only ever mentions amateur models, that doesn't mean that the artist only worked with amateurs, or that only amateur models existed. It just means that the passage is only concerned with amateurs. So on that basis, unless somewhere in the text there is a date attached to the arrival of professional artists' models, it's very unlikely to be an inference we could make.

Hope this clears things up!

[medialaw111516]

The negative answer bit definitely does. Thank you!