【小阅读^大脑袋】0514 NO.363

Photos that you might have found down the back of your sofa are now big business!

In 2005, the American artist Richard Prince’s photograph of a photograph, Untitled (Cowboy), was sold for $ 1, 248, 000.

Prince is certainly not the only contemporary artist to have worked with so-called “found photographs”—a loose term given to everything from discarded prints discovered in a junk shop to old advertisements or amateur photographs from a stranger’s family album. The German artist Joachim Schmid, who believes “basically everything is worth looking at”, has gathered discarded photographs, postcards and newspaper images since 1982. In his on-going project, Archiv, he groups photographs of family life according to themes: people with dogs; teams; new cars; dinner with the family; and so on.

Like Schmid, the editors of several self-published art magazines also champion found photographs. One of them, called simply Found, was born one snowy night in Chicago, when Davy Rothbard returned to his car to find under his wiper an angry note intended for some else: “Why’s your car HERE at HER place?” The note became the starting point for Rothbard’s addictive publication, which features found photographs sent in by readers, such a poster discovered in our drawer.

The whole found-photograph phenomenon has raised some questions. Perhaps one of the most difficult is: can these images really be considered as art? And if so, whose art? Yet found photographs produced by artists, such as Richard Prince, may be riding his horse hurriedly to meet someone? Or how did Prince create this photograph? It’s anyone’s guess. In addition, as we imagine the back-story to the people in the found photographs artists, like Schmid, have collated, we also turn toward our own photographic albums. Why is memory so important to us? Why do we all seek to freeze in time the faces of our children, our parents, our lovers, and ourselves? Will they mean anything to anyone after we’ve gone?

 

DADC
答案解析：
1. The first paragraph of the passage is used to _________.
A. remind readers of found photographs
B. advise reader to start a new kind of business
C. ask readers to find photographs behind sofa
D. show readers the value of found photographs
解析：D正确
文章第一段的目的是什么？
文章一开始就说这些照片可以成为一门生意，说明这些照片是有价值的，也起到引起读者注意的作用。

 

2. According to the passage, Joachim Schmid _________.
A. is fond of collecting family life photographs
B. found a complaining not under his car wiper
C. is working for several self-published magazines
D. wondered at the artistic nature of found photographs
解析：A正确
根据文章，Joachim Schmid怎么样了？
从描述Joachim Schmid 的那段可以看到：he groups photographs of family life according to themes……，他收集的多是家庭的照片
而其他选项都是没有讲到的。

3. The underlined word “them” in Para 4 refers to __________.
A. the readers
B. the editors
C. the found photographs
D. the self-published magazines
解析：D正确
第四段划线的them指什么？
看看them前后的内容Like Schmid, the editors of several self-published art magazines also champion found photographs. One of them, called simply Found, was born one snowy night in Chicago。前面说到editor 和magazine，因此这个them可能指人也可能指物。但是后面说这个them叫做Found，很明显这不是人名，从此判断是指前文说到的杂志。

4. The author’s attitude towards found photographs can be described as _________.
A. critical
B. doubtful
C. optimistic
D. satisfied
解析：C正确
作者对图像复原的态度是怎样的？
文章最后一段说到了复原图像的意义，记忆对人类很重要，而图像可以保存下来，因此是很有意义的。因此作者是在肯定图像复原。

参考译文：
可能你在沙发靠背下面发现的照片现在会成为很大的商机哦！

2005年，美国艺术家理查德•普林斯翻拍一张名为“牛仔•无题”的照片，以1, 248, 000美元售出。

普林斯肯定不是当代唯一的、从事所谓的“图像复原”的艺术家。“图像复原”是一条释义不那么严格的词，意思是指从在旧货商店里发现的被丢弃的印刷品到旧广告，或是一位陌生人家里的相册里业余爱好者的摄影等等的所有东西。德国画家乔基姆•斯密德（他相信“一切东西都有它值得看的地方”）自1982年以来一直在收集被丢弃的照片、明信片以及报纸上的图片。在他一直在进行的项目——《档案》里，他将照片按主题分组：与狗在一起的人，团队，新车，与家人共进晚餐，等等。

像斯密德一样，几家自费出版的艺术杂志的编辑也在捍卫“图像复原”的活动。其中的一家名为《寻找》的杂志，其诞生在芝加哥的一个雪夜，当时大卫.罗斯巴德回到自己的车前，发现雨刷下压着一张便条，话中有话的写道：“为什么你的车在此处她的位置上？”，此便条是罗斯巴德对印刷出版上瘾的起点，他的出版物的特点是在由读者寄来的照片中发现价值，而这些寄来的东西也可能就是我们抽屉里的一张海报。

整个“图像复原”现象也引起了一些问题，其中最难的问题是：这些图片真的可以称之为艺术吗？如果是，又是谁的艺术？由艺术家摄制的发现照片，如理查德.普林斯，照片上的他可能是骑着马匆匆去会某个人？或者普林斯是怎样创作这幅照片的？任何人都可以尽情猜想。除此之外，在我们想象由斯密德这样的艺术家整理的“图像复原”中的人物背后的故事时，我们还会转过来看看我们自己的相册。为什么记忆对我们是如此的重要？为什么我们都试图将我们的孩子、父母、爱人以及我们自己的脸庞静止在时空中？当我们不在人世后，这些对一些人来说能否有些意义呢？

 

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词汇及短语：
discard: vt. 丢弃, 抛弃
junk shop: 旧货店
amateur: 业余的, 非职业的
album: 粘贴簿, 集邮簿, 相册，影集，集物簿册
self-published: 由作者自行出版的
wiper: 雨刷，接帚，起杆
poster:招贴, 海报
collate: 校对,整理