Vocabulary
1. fine arts 美术（指绘画，雕刻，建筑，诗歌，音乐等）
2. assert 主张，声明，维护（权利）
3. privileged 特殊的，享受特权的，特许的
4. pretentious 狂妄的，做作的
5. irrelevant 不相干的，无关的
6. subversive 破坏性的，颠覆性的
7. disclaimer 弃权者
8. harry 掠夺，折磨
9. austerity 严格，简朴
10. convergence 聚合，集合点
11. implicit 含蓄的
12. distinctive 区别的，独特的
13. exalted 高贵的，高尚的

难句译注
1. The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph’s fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art.
[结构简析] 此句为主谓语+宾语从句。As distinct from … 句修饰fine art.
[参考译文] 最早有关摄影和艺术关系的争论点集中在摄影对表象的忠实和对机器的依赖能否使它成为艺术，有别于仅仅是实用的美术。

2. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.
[结构简析] 结构是主谓宾从。句子长是因为介词短语against the charge 后接同位说明语the photography was …宾语从句中有三组表语：a way of seeing, a revolt, an art.
[参考译文] 正队这种指责：摄影是一种没有灵魂的，对现实机械性复制，摄影工作者声名摄影不是复制品，而是一种特殊的观察方式，是对平庸视觉的叛逆，和绘画一样有艺术价值。

3. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.
[结构简析] 句子结构为主从句，which引导宾从作介词to 的宾语，宾从中imposed by …分词短语修饰concept of art, the better …the more 是说明concept of art.
[参考译文] 这说明他们就是把现代主义胜利所强加的艺术概念视为合理的，其合理程度是：艺术越强，对艺术的传统目的破坏得越大。