With the Photographer: Complete ICSE Class 10 Questions and Answers Guide

“With the Photographer” is a humorous short story by Stephen Leacock, a Canadian writer and humorist. The narrator, a forty-year-old man, visits a photo studio to get his picture taken for friends to remember him by after his death. The photographer, obsessed with perfection, criticises the narrator’s face and alters the photo beyond recognition. The story is a satire on professional arrogance, the distortion of identity, and the absurd pursuit of artificial beauty. It appears in the ICSE Class 10 English Treasure Chest anthology and is a popular exam text.

Key Takeaways

Who Is Stephen Leacock?

Stephen Leacock (1869–1944) was a Canadian writer best known for his humorous essays and sketches. He taught economics and political science at McGill University but became famous for his comic writing. His best-known works include Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912) and Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich (1914).

“With the Photographer” comes from his 1913 collection Behind the Beyond. Leacock used everyday situations to poke fun at human pretension and social absurdity. His humour is never cruel. It is observational. He finds comedy in the gap between what people expect and what actually happens.

Story Summary

The narrator goes to a photo studio to have his picture taken. He wants to give the photo to his friends as a memory after his death. The photographer, described as a drooping man in a gray suit with dim eyes, greets him without enthusiasm.

The narrator waits for an hour, reading old magazines. When called in, the photographer criticises every feature of his face. He calls it “quite wrong” and suggests it would look better “three-quarters full.” He twists the narrator’s head, asks him to droop his ears, roll his eyes under the lids, and put his hands on his knees.

The photo is taken secretly, when the narrator rises from his seat in frustration. On Saturday, the narrator returns. The photographer shows him a heavily retouched proof. The eyes are retouched. The eyebrows are removed. The mouth is repositioned. A process called Delphide has been used on the brow line. The only thing that looks original is the ears. The photographer then offers to remove the ears entirely using a process called Sulphide.

The narrator is furious. He wanted his real face, not an altered version. He calls the photo “a worthless bauble” and leaves the studio in tears.

Question Answers: Extract-Based (Passage Wise)

Passage 1: “I want my photograph taken…”

Q1. Why did the photographer look at the narrator without enthusiasm? The photographer looked at the narrator without enthusiasm because the narrator’s face was not what he considered photogenic. The photographer had high aesthetic standards and immediately judged the narrator’s appearance as unsuitable for a good photograph.

Q2. How does the narrator describe the photographer? The narrator describes the photographer as a drooping man in a gray suit with dim eyes, like those of a natural scientist. He then adds that there is no need to describe him further, because everyone knows what a photographer looks like. This is itself a comic remark.

Q3. What is the significance of the magazines the narrator reads while waiting? The narrator reads the Ladies’ Companion for 1912, the Girls’ Magazine for 1902, and the Infants’ Journal for 1888. These are all outdated publications, which shows that the studio is dull and neglected. The magazines also contain images of models, which subtly create a sense of pressure around appearance.

Q4. What does “Everybody knows what a photographer is like” suggest? It suggests that photographers share a common type: unenthusiastic, fussy, and self-important. Leacock uses this line to make a general comic point about the profession without dwelling on physical description.

Passage 2: “The face is quite wrong…”

Q5. What did the photographer mean when he said “the face is quite wrong”? The photographer meant that the narrator’s face did not meet his standard for a good portrait. He found the proportions and features unsuitable. The narrator’s response, “I know, I have always known it,” is self-deprecating humour. He pretends to agree but is actually mocking the photographer’s arrogance.

Q6. What did the photographer mean by “three-quarters full”? He meant that photographing the face at a three-quarter angle, rather than full-face, would make it look better. It is a standard technique in portrait photography. The narrator seizes on this to suggest that many faces, even narrow and limited ones, appear wider and larger when seen at that angle.

Q7. What is the significance of the narrator saying “So would yours”? The narrator says this to the photographer, implying that the photographer’s own face would also benefit from being photographed at a three-quarter angle. It is a polite but pointed comeback. The narrator is suggesting, with comic irony, that the photographer is not himself without flaws.

Q8. How does the photographer adjust the narrator’s pose? The photographer twists the narrator’s head sideways. He asks the narrator to droop his ears, roll his eyes under the lids, put his hands on his knees, and turn his face slightly upward. These adjustments are exaggerated and comic. They reduce the narrator to an object being arranged rather than a person being photographed.

Passage 3: The Camera Scene

Q9. Why did the narrator think the photographer was praying? When the photographer crawled into the camera and pulled a black cloth over himself, the narrator thought he was praying. This is a humorous misreading. The black cloth is a standard part of an old-fashioned camera, used to block external light. But the narrator’s description makes it seem ridiculous.

Q10. Why was the photographer “frantic for light and air”? The photographer needed the right amount of light to take a good photograph. He was tearing at the cotton sheet over the skylight window with a hooked stick to let in more light. The narrator describes him as “apparently frantic,” which exaggerates the scene for comic effect.

Q11. How was the photograph actually taken? The photograph was not taken with the narrator’s knowledge or cooperation. When the narrator grew frustrated and began to rise angrily from his seat, the photographer seized the moment and clicked the camera. The narrator did not know the picture had been taken until it was done.

Passage 4: “The ears are bad…”

Q12. What instructions did the photographer give in this passage? The photographer asked the narrator to droop his ears a little more, roll his eyes in under the lids, place his hands on his knees, and turn his face a little upward. Each instruction is more absurd than the last. Leacock uses this sequence to show the photographer treating the narrator as an object, not a person.

Q13. What is the tone of this passage? The tone is comic and satirical. The photographer’s instructions are ridiculous, and the narrator follows them with a kind of helpless resignation. The humour comes from the gap between the photographer’s professional seriousness and the absurdity of what he is asking.

Passage 5: “The photographer beckoned me in…”

Q14. Why did the photographer seem to have “a certain pride” in his manner? The photographer was proud because he believed he had improved the narrator’s photograph significantly. He had retouched the image to align with his own aesthetic standards and considered the result a professional achievement. His pride is ironic, because the narrator finds the result unrecognisable.

Q15. What does “proof” mean in this context? A “proof” is a trial print of a photograph made before the final version is produced. It is shown to the subject for approval before the final copy is made.

Q16. Why did the narrator ask “Is it me?”? The narrator asked this because the photograph looked nothing like him. Every feature had been altered. The eyes were retouched. The eyebrows were removed. The mouth was repositioned. The image was so different from his actual face that he genuinely could not recognise himself.

Q17. Which facial features had the photographer altered? The photographer had retouched the eyes, removed the eyebrows, repositioned the mouth, and altered the brow line using a chemical process called Delphide. He had also adjusted the hairline. The only original feature remaining was the ears.

Q18. What was the only original part of the face? How did the photographer plan to fix it? The ears were the only part that still looked like the narrator’s real face. The photographer planned to remove them entirely in the final print using a process he called Sulphide. This proposal pushed the narrator over the edge.

Q19. What made the narrator angry at the end? Was his anger justified? The narrator was angry because the photograph no longer represented his real face. He had gone to the studio simply to get a natural photograph for friends to remember him by. Instead, he received a heavily altered image that bore no resemblance to him. His anger was fully justified. The photographer had ignored his wishes and imposed his own aesthetic standards. The narrator felt humiliated and his sense of self had been violated.

Short Answer Questions (General)

Q20. What was the narrator’s purpose in visiting the photo studio? The narrator wanted a photograph to give to his friends so they could remember him after his death. He was not interested in an idealised or improved image. He wanted a true likeness.

Q21. What is the central theme of the story? The central theme is the conflict between the real self and the distorted self. The narrator represents acceptance of one’s natural appearance. The photographer represents the obsession with artificial improvement. The story argues that authentic identity has more value than a technically perfected but false image.

Q22. How does Leacock use humour in this story? Leacock uses irony, self-deprecating narration, comic exaggeration, and absurd situations. The narrator’s calm, polite responses to the photographer’s increasingly ridiculous demands are funny because of the contrast. The humour is never aggressive. It grows from the gap between expectation and reality.

Q23. What does the story suggest about professional arrogance? The photographer is so confident in his own skill that he ignores the wishes of his client entirely. He treats the narrator’s face as a problem to be corrected rather than a person to be represented. Leacock uses this to satirise professionals who prioritise their own standards over the needs of the people they serve.

Q24. What is meant by “a worthless bauble”? The narrator uses this phrase to dismiss the altered photograph. A “bauble” is a showy but worthless trinket. By calling the photograph a “worthless bauble,” the narrator says it has no value to him because it does not represent who he actually is.

Q25. How does the story comment on beauty standards? The photographer represents society’s pressure to look better, thinner, more symmetrical, or more polished. He assumes that his idea of beauty is correct and that the narrator should want to look like that. The narrator rejects this. He values his own face, with all its imperfections, over an image made to meet someone else’s standard. This is the story’s quiet but clear argument.

Character Analysis

The Narrator

The narrator is a forty-year-old man who tells the story in the first person. He is self-aware and has a gentle sense of humour about his own appearance. He is patient, for the most part, but has a breaking point. He knows his face is imperfect but does not want it erased. His desire for an authentic photograph shows self-acceptance.

The Photographer

The photographer is self-important, technically skilled, and emotionally blind. He sees the narrator’s face as a problem to be solved, not a person to be represented. He is not cruel in the conventional sense. He genuinely believes he is improving the photograph. But his inability to listen or empathise makes him a comic villain. He is a type rather than an individual. Leacock calls him a type deliberately. “Everybody knows what a photographer is like.”

Literary Devices

“I want my photograph taken,” I said. The photographer looked at me without enthusiasm.” — Stephen Leacock (With the Photographer, 1913)

You can read more on related topics at litgram.in. For an understanding of how satire works as a literary mode, see narrative poetry examples and how form shapes meaning. If you are preparing for ICSE Class 10 English, you may also find the summary of “The Tale of Melon City” useful, as it is another humorous text that uses irony to make a social point. For a broader understanding of humour and identity in literature, Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto explores similar questions of how identity is classified and distorted by external authority.

For further context on how satirical short stories are studied in school curricula, the CISCE official website provides the latest ICSE syllabus and exam pattern.

FAQ: With the Photographer

Q. Who wrote “With the Photographer”? Stephen Leacock, a Canadian teacher and humorist, wrote this story. It comes from his 1913 collection Behind the Beyond and Other Contributions to Human Knowledge.

Q. What is the genre of the story? The story is humorous fiction. It is also a satire. Leacock uses comedy to make a serious point about professional arrogance and the distortion of identity.

Q. What do students commonly confuse about this story? Many students confuse the narrator with Leacock himself. The narrator is unnamed in the text. Leacock wrote in the first person, but the narrator is a fictional character, not an autobiographical account. Also, students sometimes say the theme is “photography.” The theme is identity and the distortion of self.

Q. What is the significance of the ears in the story? The ears are the only facial feature left unaltered in the photograph. When the photographer offers to remove even the ears using “Sulphide,” it is the final insult. The ears represent the last trace of the narrator’s real identity. Removing them would leave nothing original at all.

Q. What literary device does “the machine still staggering from the shock” use? This is personification. The camera is described as if it were a living thing reacting to what it has seen. It is also hyperbole. Leacock uses this to exaggerate the moment comically.

Q. How does this story appear in ICSE exams? ICSE papers typically ask extract-based questions from specific passages, short answer questions on character and theme, and sometimes a longer essay question. MCQs on the Treasure Chest workbook also test factual recall. Knowing the passage-wise questions and answers given above will cover most of what appears in board papers.

Q. What is the moral of the story? There is no single moral, but the story argues for self-acceptance. The narrator’s final anger is not about vanity. It is about the right to be represented as you actually are, rather than as someone else thinks you should look.

Q. Is there a modern relevance to this story? Yes. The story speaks directly to the age of photo filters, Photoshop, and social media. The photographer’s behaviour mirrors modern tools that alter faces to meet beauty ideals. Leacock wrote this in 1913, but the argument still holds.

Conclusion: Why “With the Photographer” Still Matters

Leacock wrote this story over a century ago, but its central argument is unchanged. The narrator asks only for a true image of himself. The photographer gives him a product shaped by professional vanity and external beauty norms. The narrator’s anger is not irrational. He has been erased and replaced by something that pleases someone else.

For ICSE students, this story tests more than comprehension. It tests the ability to read irony, identify satire, and explain how humour can carry a serious argument. A student who can explain why the story is funny and why it is also serious will score well in long-answer questions.

The story also connects to broader literary questions about identity, authenticity, and the social pressure to conform. These are themes that appear across the ICSE and UGC NET curricula.