# IS PHOTOGRAPHY ART?: answers and explanations

The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, Test 1, Reading Passage 3

Source: Passage, questions and answer key from The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS, Test 1, Reading Passage 3. © Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Used for educational practice. Explanations and evidence notes are written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 27 | C | this question reflected the search for ways to fit the mechanical medium into the traditional schemes of artistic expression |
| 28 | D | public interest in this topic was a reflection of the belief that national stature and achievement in the arts were related |
| 29 | D | who realized that photography represented the 'handwriting on the wall' became involved with daguerreotyping or paper photography in an effort to save their careers |
| 30 | A | the opposition of a section of the cultural elite in England and France to the 'cheapening of art' ... convinced the elite that photographs would foster a desire for realism instead of idealism |
| 31 | E | From the maze of conflicting statements and heated articles on the subject, three main positions about the potential of camera art emerged. |
| 32 | G | photographs should not be considered 'art' because they were made with a mechanical device |
| 33 | A | but should not be considered equal in creativeness to drawing and painting |
| 34 | C | they might have a positive influence on the arts and on culture in general |
| 35 | B | suggested that they would lead to greater naturalness in the graphic depiction of anatomy, clothing, likeness, expression, and landscape |
| 36 | E | to dismiss camera images as 'narrow in range, emphatic in assertion, telling one truth for ten falsehoods' |
| 37 | A | began almost immediately to use photography to make a record of their own output |
| 38 | D | an artist might 'raise himself to heights that we do not yet know' |
| 39 | A | to provide themselves with source material for poses and backgrounds |
| 40 | C | photography was linked with 'the great industrial madness' of the time |

## Why these answers are right

**27. C.** The question asks for the main point of the first paragraph. The writer says the question may seem pointless today, but in the decades after photography appeared people struggled to fit it into traditional art. So photography was not always accepted as art, C.

**28. D.** You need the public view held in both France and England. Paragraph B says that in both countries public interest reflected a belief that national stature and achievement in the arts were linked. Raising a country's international profile matches national stature, so D.

**29. D.** The question asks what 'the handwriting on the wall' means. Paragraph D says portrait painters who saw photography this way took it up to save their careers. They sensed a threat to their work, so the phrase means a warning of something bad, D.

The why and the trap for questions 30 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/reading/is-photography-art/answers).

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