Practice question · Multiple choice
Photographs possess evidential authority because they are indexical traces, yet they frequently mislead. Why does this indexical nature fail to guarantee objective truth?
Hints
- Does recording a physical imprint prevent a photographer from choosing what to exclude?
- What separates the raw optical trace from the narrative an audience receives?
Show the answer
B. Framing and captioning inevitably curate how the captured trace is interpreted
Why
The indexical trace certifies physical presence, not neutral meaning; editorial selection and framing dictate the narrative. Conflating the optical record with objective truth overlooks how context constructs interpretation.
Practise Photography and Mass Media
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Art History I is free to start.
More questions on Photography and Mass Media
- Which are true of a photograph's indexical character?
- Sort each consequence by whether Benjamin treats it as EMANCIPATORY or DANGEROUS.
- In roughly which year did Benjamin write "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"?
- Arrange the steps of Benjamin's argument in order.
- Arrange these developments in the reproduction of images in order.
- Reproductions flatten scale, so a miniature and an altarpiece look the same size on a screen. Why does that…