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 Passage Ten (Photography and Art)

The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph’s fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defence of photography was identical with the struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.

Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselves-anything but making works of art. They are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.

Photographers’ disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expressionist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Much of photography’s prestige today derives from the convergence of its aims with those of recent art, particularly with the dismissal of abstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the 1960’s. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by abstract art. Classical Modernist painting-that is, abstract art as developed in different ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse-presupposes highly developed skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art. Photography, like Pop painting, reassures viewers that art is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art.

Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity-in short, an art.

1. What is the author mainly concerned with? The author is concerned with

[A]. defining the Modernist attitude toward art.

[B]. explaining how photography emerged as a fine art.

[C]. explaining the attitude of serious contemporary photographers toward photography as art and placing those attitudes in their historical context.

[D]. defining the various approaches that serious contemporary photographers take toward their art and assessing the value of each of those approaches.

2. Which of the following adjectives best describes “the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism” as the author represents it in lines 12-13?

[A]. Objective [B]. Mechanical. [C]. Superficial. [D]. Paradoxical.

3. Why does the author introduce Abstract Expressionist painter?

[A]. He wants to provide an example of artists who, like serious contemporary photographers, disavowed traditionally accepted aims of modern art.

[B]. He wants to set forth an analogy between the Abstract Expressionist painters and classical Modernist painters.

[C]. He wants to provide a contrast to Pop artist and others.

[D]. He wants to provide an explanation of why serious photography, like other contemporary visual forms, is not and should not pretend to be an art.

4. How did the nineteenth-century defenders of photography stress the photography?

[A]. They stressed photography was a means of making people happy.

[B]. It was art for recording the world.

[C]. It was a device for observing the world impartially.

[D]. It was an art comparable to painting.

Vocabulary

1. fine arts 美術（指繪畫，雕刻，建筑，詩歌，音樂等）

2. assert 主張，聲明，維護（權利）

3. privileged 特殊的，享受特權的，特許的

4. pretentious 狂妄的，做作的

5. irrelevant 不相干的，無關的

6. subversive 破壞性的，顛覆性的

難句譯注

1. The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph’s fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art.

[結構簡析] 此句為主謂語+賓語從句。As distinct from … 句修飾fine art.

[參考譯文] 最早有關攝影和藝術關系的爭論點集中在攝影對表象的忠實和對機器的依賴能否使它成為藝術，有別于僅僅是實用的美術。

2. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.

[結構簡析] 結構是主謂賓從。句子長是因為介詞短語against the charge 后接同位說明語the photography was …賓語從句中有三組表語：a way of seeing, a revolt, an art.

[參考譯文] 正隊這種指責：攝影是一種沒有靈魂的，對現實機械性復制，攝影工作者聲名攝影不是復制品，而是一種特殊的觀察方式，是對平庸視覺的叛逆，和繪畫一樣有藝術價值。

3. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.

[結構簡析] 句子結構為主從句，which引導賓從作介詞to 的賓語，賓從中imposed by …分詞短語修飾concept of art, the better …the more 是說明concept of art.

[參考譯文] 這說明他們就是把現代主義勝利所強加的藝術概念視為合理的，其合理程度是：藝術越強，對藝術的傳統目的破壞得越大。

4. Photographers’ disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art.

[結構簡析] 名詞disclaimer放棄，否認。上下文翻譯中可譯成動詞含義，否認拋棄創作藝術的興趣。

[參考譯文] 攝影師否認對創作藝術感性趣，他們告訴我們更多的是有關現代藝術概念的令人苦惱的情況，而不是攝影是不是藝術問題。

5. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity-in short, an art.

[結構簡析] 復合句。句內三個that clause. 第一個是worry的賓從；第二個是so far that 的句型。第三個是forget 之賓從。

[參考譯文] 許多專業攝影人員私下開始擔憂，強調攝影是對傳統藝術意圖的顛覆活動的做法有些過分了，（活動的宣傳走得太遠）以致使公眾忘記攝影是一種獨特的高尚活動--總之，是一種藝術。

寫作方法與文章大意

文章論及“攝影是否是藝術”問題，這樣采用對比手法。一開始就講述了19世紀攝影家為確立攝影是藝術而提出的種種依據，并把美術和攝影作比較，來反駁否定攝影的論點：忠于表象，以來機器，沒有靈魂……

確立的藝術后，他們為擺脫油畫那種矯飾的藝術意圖而努力推崇“藝術越佳，對藝術傳統意圖破壞越大”的論點。作者把這些攝影家和抽象表現主義畫家相提并論，把攝影和流行畫等同；和古典現代主義畫家和畫相對抗。

最后結論是這種破壞傳統藝術意圖的活動不能走得太遠，因為攝影畢竟是藝術，否則……。

答案祥解

1. C. 說明當代嚴肅的攝影家對攝影作為藝術的態度，并把他們這些態度放在歷史的進程來觀察。見文章大意。他們先為攝影是否是藝術而爭辯，后為否定其藝術而努力。重點放在主題上。

A. 界定顯得主義者對藝術的態度。 B. 解釋攝影是如何作為美術出現的。第一段涉及，見難句譯注2。 D. 界定當代嚴肅攝影家對待他們藝術所具有的各種觀點，并評定每種觀點的價值。這三項只是文內提到的某些方面，不是主要的。

2. D. 矛盾的。見難句譯注3。

A. 客觀的。 B. 機械的。 C. 表面的。

3. A. 他要列舉這樣藝術家的例子，他們象當代嚴肅的攝影家一樣拋棄了傳統上被接受的現代藝術目的。見第三段第二句：“舉例說，這些認為通過拍照可以擺脫繪畫所表現的藝術的矯飾的攝影家，使我們想起了那些抽象表現主義繪畫的嚴肅的思想。”

B. 他想在抽象表現主義畫家和古典現代主義畫家之間找出相似點。 C. 他要在流行藝術家和其它藝術家之間作一個對比。 D. 他想解釋為什么嚴肅攝影，象其它當代視覺形式一樣不是藝術，而且也不應當充作藝術。

4. D. 攝影是一種藝術，可以和油畫相比美。見難句譯注2。

A. 他們強調攝影是使人們快樂的手段。 B. 是記錄世界的藝術。 C. 攝影是公正觀察世界的工具。

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