CAE Reading and Use of English Part 6
You are going to read four extracts by academics about photography. For questions 37-40, choose from the academics A-D. The experts may be chosen more than once.
Is photography art?
A
In my view, when a photograph is produced, this is not the result of genuinely creative camera work. A scientific technique is being applied, and with a good camera, even an amateur photographer with no artistic ability can reliably produce acceptable images. Compare this to the likelihood of someone with no idea how to paint or carve ever creating a decent watercolour or statue. Clearly, the creative quality of photography is far removed from that of such genuinely artistic endeavours. And yet there are those who persist in claiming that photography is the most significant contemporary art form. Perhaps I should qualify the extent to which I disagree: admittedly, when a photographer captures a moment of reality, it is done deliberately. It is perhaps this deliberateness that contains the germ of what might be called art.
B
Photography belongs both to the realms of reality and imagination: although it sometimes favours one over the other, it never quite relinquishes its hold on either. Little does it matter that a photograph can be printed out a thousand times, thus depriving the ‘original’ of its unique status. For me, it is sufficient that no two photographers are likely to create an identical image, and it is this which sets photography on par with more established artistic disciplines such as sculpture or painting when it comes to inventiveness and originality. And now, although the idea that photography could be art at one time appeared absurd to many people, it is without a doubt our foremost and most immediately accessible means of artistic expression. In no way is it undermined by the fact that everyone has a camera these days and can take excellent photos without formal instruction.
C
To draw comparisons between painting and photography as art forms is to miss the point; they are so very different. Moreover, photographs capture reality, and therefore can often have a far greater impact on the viewer. There are those who insist that unlike painting, which can take years of practice to master, photography is easy: anyone can pick up a camera and take a reasonable picture. However, I would contend that it is unlikely ever to match the creativity of one taken by a professional photographer, and if it does, its success is unlikely to be replicated. These issues have been debated by art critics for over a century, and yet, arguably, photography is not only one of the newest types of art, it is the ultimate form of modern art.
D
There are many thousands of important early art photographs in public and private collections worldwide and yet the majority were not made with the art exhibition in mind. Some were intended as demonstrations of what the new medium could do; others began life as documents, records or illustrations; only later were they seen as art objects. The central role photography currently plays in the international artistic realm would once have been unimaginable. There are still those who judge photography not to be a true art. One reason given is that it can be duplicated again and again. I would remind them that bronze sculpture, which no-one denies is an art form, can involve casting and recasting a large number of copies. Surely a photographer’s art, like that of a painter, is the ability to capture a moment of reality and turn it into an image of interest and beauty – a true measure of creativity.
Which academic …
37 shares an opinion with B on whether the fact that photographs can be reproduced devalues them as art?
38 has a different opinion from A on whether taking consistently good photographs requires professional training?
39 has a similar opinion to D about whether most photographs were originally regarded as works of art?
40 has a different view from all the others on the importance of photography in today’s art world?
For this task: Answers with explanations :: Vocabulary