It can be inferred from the passage that journalistic and photographic records of Depression–era Harlem generally do not

jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com on February 3, 2022

Could someone please explain this?

Thanks

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Ross-Rinehart on February 7, 2022

This asks us what journalistic and photographic records of Depression-era Harlem do *not* do. The reference to these records is in the fourth paragraph. There, the author says that, “Bearden sought in his work to reveal in all its fullness a world long hidden by the clichés of sociology and rendered cloudy by the simplifications of journalism and documentary photography” (lines 45-48). So, the author thinks that journalism and documentary photograph simplified the fullness of life at the time. Later, the author says that Bearden — in contrast to sociology, journalism and documentary photography — insisted “that we truly see the African-American experience in depth” (lines 52-53). Based on these two quotes, the author would say that the journalism and documentary photographs of that era simplify the era, preventing us from seeing the African-American experience in depth. Therefore, (D) is the correct answer — the journalism and documentary photographs don’t depict the “richness,” or depth, of African-American life.