Passage A
In the late nineteenth century, Jacob Riis pioneered social documentary photography, using the newly invented flash powder to illuminate the dark, cramped tenements of New York City. For Riis, the camera was not a tool for aesthetic expression, but an instrument of social reform. His photographs in *How the Other Half Lives* were deliberately raw, unposed, and unadorned. Riis believed that by presenting stark, unvarnished visual evidence of poverty, he could compel middle-class viewers to demand legislative action. To Riis, any effort to beautify these images would have compromised their authenticity and dimmed the urgency of his activist message.
Passage B
Around the same time, Alfred Stieglitz championed Pictorialism, a movement dedicated to establishing photography as a legitimate fine art on par with painting. Stieglitz rejected the notion that the camera was merely a mechanical recording device. Instead, he argued that a photograph should express the artist’s subjective vision and emotional state. Pictorialists achieved this by manipulating focus, using soft-tonality, and carefully composing scenes to evoke atmosphere rather than catalog facts. For Stieglitz, the value of an image lay not in its literal representation of a subject, but in its ability to transcend the physical world and achieve a universal aesthetic truth.
Based on the passages, which of the following statements best describes the primary point of disagreement between Riis and Stieglitz regarding the relationship between a photograph and the reality it depicts?
- ARiis aimed to capture the subjective emotional states of his subjects to evoke sympathy, whereas Stieglitz sought to catalog objective historical facts about urban development.
- BRiis believed that photography must maintain absolute mechanical objectivity to be considered a fine art, while Stieglitz believed that only unvarnished documentary photos could achieve universal truth.
- Riis believed a photograph should serve as a direct, unvarnished record of physical reality to prompt action, whereas Stieglitz believed a photograph should transform or transcend physical reality to express an inner artistic vision.Cevap
- DRiis utilized aesthetic manipulation to make his social reform messages more persuasive, whereas Stieglitz believed that any darkroom alteration would destroy the photograph's emotional authenticity.