English LiteratureICSE Class 10 · Chapter 4

With the Photographer ICSE Class 10: Summary, Characters and Questions

Updated 14 October 2026 · Fact-checked

With the Photographer is a humorous story by Stephen Leacock in Treasure Chest. The narrator wants an ordinary photograph of himself, but an arrogant photographer criticises his face and retouches the picture until he cannot recognise himself. It satirises vanity and the loss of identity. ICSE tests it through MCQs and extracts.

What With the Photographer is about

With the Photographer by the Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock is the first of the five Class X short stories in Treasure Chest: A Collection of ICSE Short Stories & Poems. It is a short, comic first-person narrative about a man who simply wants a photograph that looks like him, and a photographer who treats his face as a problem to be corrected.

Beneath the humour is satire: Leacock mocks professionals who ignore what customers want, and the fashion for 'improved' pictures that erase a person's real face. The story is very relevant today, when phone cameras and apps smooth skin and reshape faces automatically.

In the 2025 paper and the 2027 specimen, the story supplied a Section A MCQ: the narrator asks 'Is it me?' because he cannot recognise his own face. A Section C extract question (16 marks, five parts) could ask about the long wait, the photographer's manner, the retouched proof, the narrator's outburst and the story's message.

Weightage: CISCE publishes no weightage by text. Section A has 16 one-mark MCQs (about 5 on the short stories), and Section C offers two 16-mark prose extract questions; at least one prose question must be attempted.Source: CISCE ICSE 2027 Specimen Question Paper, Literature in English (T27 012)

With the Photographer: summary

In our own words, in the order of the text. Read the NCERT text itself too: the board quotes from it.

The narrator goes to a photographer's studio and asks to have his photograph taken. The photographer, a drooping man in a grey suit, looks at him without enthusiasm and tells him to sit and wait. The narrator waits an hour, reading magazines that are years, even decades, out of date, and begins to feel that he has intruded on the man's 'scientific pursuits' with a face like his.

At last he is called into the studio. The photographer looks at him through the camera, tears frantically at the cotton sheet over the skylight for more light, and then declares gravely, 'The face is quite wrong.' The narrator meekly agrees. The photographer twists his head sideways, says he does not like the head, tells him to open his mouth and then to close it, calls the ears bad, and fires off a stream of absurd orders: droop the ears, roll the eyes under the lids, hump the neck, contract the waist. When he says the face is still a trifle too full, the narrator finally protests: this is his own face, he has lived with it for forty years, he knows its faults and has learned to love it. As he starts to rise, the photographer pulls the string and takes the picture, pleased to have caught the features 'in a moment of animation'. He tells the narrator to come back on Saturday to see a proof.

On Saturday the photographer proudly unfolds a large proof. 'Is it me?' the narrator asks. The eyes have been retouched; the eyebrows have been removed by a process called the 'Delphide' to make a new brow line; the mouth has been adjusted because his own was 'too low'. Only the ears look like his, and the photographer offers to remove them with another process, the 'Sulphide'.

The narrator bursts out in withering scorn. He came for a picture that looked like him, his face as Heaven gave it, something his friends might keep after his death; since that is no longer done, the photographer may retouch, gloss and gild the picture as he likes and keep it for himself and his friends. To the narrator it is 'but a worthless bauble'. He breaks into tears and leaves. The comedy of the visit turns, at the end, into a sad comment on how a person's real self can be lost when it is made to fit someone else's idea of a good face.

Themes and message

Identity and the right to be oneself

The narrator wants a picture of his real face, flaws and all, because that face is who he is. The retouched photograph erases his identity: he literally does not recognise himself. The story defends the value of being seen as one really is.

From the text: His question 'Is it me?' and his outburst that he wanted his own face for his friends to remember.

Satire on vanity and artificial beauty

Leacock mocks the idea that a photograph should flatter rather than record. The photographer's 'improvements' reflect a society that values appearance over truth.

From the text: The heavily retouched proof, presented with pride.

Professional arrogance

The photographer treats the customer as raw material for his art. He keeps him waiting, criticises his face rudely and ignores what he actually asked for. Leacock satirises experts who forget that they exist to serve.

From the text: The long wait, the stream of criticism, the photographer's indifference to the narrator's protest.

The humour and pathos of the ordinary man

The narrator is a meek, ordinary customer who puts up with insult after insult before he protests. Even his protest is ignored: the photographer snaps the picture in the middle of it. His final outburst over the proof is funny because it is so grandly worded, and sad because it is so sincere.

From the text: His meek agreement that the face is 'quite wrong', the picture taken mid-protest, and his tears at the end.

Characters

The narrator

The customer who wants his photograph taken; the story's speaker.

Patient and meek: he waits for an hour and goes along with most of the instructions.
Sensitive: the criticism of his face hurts him.
Values truth and identity over beauty: he wants a real likeness.
Finally assertive: he protests in the studio and bursts out in scorn over the proof.

His behaviour in the studio and his speech on seeing the proof.

The photographer

The studio owner who takes and retouches the photograph.

Arrogant and indifferent to the customer.
Rude: he openly criticises the narrator's face.
Sees himself as an artist improving nature.
Unable to understand the narrator's feelings.

The wait, his criticisms and the retouched proof.

How it is written

Device	Example	Effect
Satire	A photographer who 'improves' a face until its owner cannot recognise it.	Ridicules artificial beauty and professional conceit.
Exaggeration (hyperbole)	The extreme criticisms of the narrator's features and the extreme retouching.	Creates humour while making the point unmistakable.
First-person narration and understatement	The narrator reports insults calmly, as if they were normal.	The gap between what happens and his calm tone is funny, and makes the final outburst more powerful.
Contrast in mood	The comic studio scene against the emotional ending.	Turns a joke into a reflection on identity.

Key quotations

Short lines worth knowing by heart: who says them, when, and why they matter.

Is it me?
The narrator: On seeing the retouched proof.
He cannot recognise his own face; the question sums up the theme of lost identity. (Tested as an MCQ in 2025 and the 2027 specimen.)
The face is quite wrong,
The photographer: After his first long look at the narrator through the camera.
The comic heart of the story: the photographer treats a man's own face as a mistake to be corrected.
This face is my face. It is not yours, it is mine.
The narrator: His protest in the studio, just before the photograph is snapped.
States the theme of identity: his face, faults and all, belongs to him.
To me it is but a worthless bauble.
The narrator: The end of his outburst over the retouched proof.
A picture that is not a true likeness has no value to him, however polished it is.

With the Photographer in real life

Each concept, met in an everyday situation. Read the situation, answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.

Filters and lost identity

Suppose your phone's camera app automatically smooths your skin and enlarges your eyes in every selfie, and a relative says, 'That doesn't even look like you.'

How does this connect with the narrator's experience, and what is the danger?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

The app plays the photographer: it 'improves' the face without asking.
Danger: you begin to prefer an unreal face and dislike your own.

Answer: Like the narrator, you are shown a face that is not yours. The danger, which Leacock saw a century ago, is that people lose respect for their real appearance and identity.

Memory hook: If you have to ask 'Is it me?', the picture has failed.

Serving the customer

Imagine you ask a tailor to make a simple kurta, and he insists on a fancy design because he thinks it suits you better.

What is wrong with his attitude, and which character does he resemble?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

He ignores your stated wish.
He resembles the photographer, who imposes his idea of beauty.

Answer: A professional's skill should serve the customer's wishes, not override them. The tailor, like Leacock's photographer, values his own taste over your choice.

Memory hook: The customer asked for a likeness, not a masterpiece.

Speaking up

Suppose a friend keeps making jokes about your looks, and you laugh along until one day you explode in anger.

How is this like the narrator, and what would have been better?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Silent suffering builds frustration.
The narrator puts up with insult after insult; by the time he protests, the photographer simply snaps the picture.
Better: politely object early.

Answer: The narrator endures one insult after another and protests only when the photographer is about to take the picture, so his protest changes nothing. Calmly speaking up earlier, about what we want and what hurts, avoids both humiliation and explosions.

Memory hook: Speak at the first insult, not the last.

Topics in this chapter

The Retouched Proof, Vanity and the Loss of Identity (With the Photographer)

How the board asks With the Photographer

The question patterns to expect, and the method that works for each.

Question type	How it is asked	Method
Section A MCQ (1 mark)	Why the narrator asks 'Is it me?' (he cannot recognise his own face); the photographer's attitude; the order of events.	Match the option to the narrator's feeling at that exact moment; do not choose options about delight or shame when the point is recognition.
Extract question (16 marks: 3, 3, 3, 3, 4)	An extract from the studio scene or the ending, with parts on context, the photographer's manner, the retouching, the narrator's response and a personal-response part on the message.	Answer each sub-question inside a part; support character points with an action; in the 4-mark part, give a clear opinion with two reasons.
Theme and message	'What is Leacock satirising?'; 'Why did the narrator want his own face?'	Name the target of the satire, explain it with an incident, and link it to today's world if the question invites a personal response.

Tricks to remember With the Photographer

Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.

W-S-P-P: Wait, Studio, Proof, Protest
The hour's Wait; the Studio criticisms; the retouched Proof; the narrator's Protest.
Use it when: Sequencing and summary questions.
Likeness, not loveliness
The narrator wanted a likeness; the photographer gave him loveliness.
Use it when: Theme answers in one line.

With the Photographer: board-level solved questions

Ordered from board level to HOTS. Cover the solution, write your own, then compare step by step.

Example 1: MCQ: 'Is it me?' · 1 mark · MCQBoard level

The narrator asks the photographer, 'Is it me?' because he:
(a) is delighted with the photographer's skill
(b) looks very handsome in the photograph
(c) is unable to recognise his own face
(d) is ashamed of how he looks in the picture

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

The proof has been retouched so heavily that the features are no longer his.
The question expresses non-recognition, not delight or shame.

Answer: (c) is unable to recognise his own face

Example 2: The photographer's attitude · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level

How does the photographer treat the narrator before the photograph is taken? What does this reveal about him?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Before: looks at him without interest, keeps him waiting about an hour.
In the studio: criticises his face and features, orders him about, handles his head like an object.
Reveals: arrogant, rude, indifferent to the customer.

Answer: He receives the narrator coldly, keeps him waiting for about an hour, and then criticises his face and features while ordering him to turn and adjust his head as if it were an object. It reveals an arrogant, discourteous man who cares more for his own idea of art than for his customer.

Example 3: Why the narrator protests · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level

Why does the narrator finally lose his patience? What did he really want from the photograph?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Trigger: the retouched proof erases his real features.
What he wanted: a true likeness of his own face, as Heaven gave it, for his friends to keep after his death.

Answer: He loses patience on seeing that the photographer has altered his face beyond recognition, after humiliating him in the studio and snapping the picture in the middle of his protest. He had wanted a simple, true picture of his own face, as Heaven gave it to him, which his friends might keep after his death.

Example 4: Satire then and now · 4 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency

What is Leacock satirising in this story? Do you think the satire is relevant today? Give two reasons.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Targets: artificial beauty and vanity; arrogant professionals who ignore the client.
Relevance: beauty filters and editing apps; social pressure to look 'perfect' online.

Answer: He satirises the fashion for flattering, artificial portraits that replace a real face with an ideal one, and the arrogance of a professional who ignores what his customer asks for. It is even more relevant today: (1) phone filters and editing apps automatically smooth and reshape faces, so people post pictures that are not really them; (2) the pressure to look perfect online makes many young people dislike their real appearance, which is exactly the loss of self the narrator protests against.

Example 5: Humour and pathos · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency

How does Leacock make the studio scene funny, and how does the mood change at the end?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Humour: exaggerated criticisms, the narrator's meek obedience, his calm reporting of insults.
Change: the emotional outburst and his sorrowful exit turn comedy into pathos.

Answer: The humour comes from exaggeration (the photographer's absurd fault-finding) and from the narrator's meek, deadpan obedience. At the end the mood turns serious and sad: his heartfelt plea for his own face, and his defeat, make us sympathise rather than laugh.

Where the marks are

How a typical answer is marked: the value points the examiner looks for and the marks each earns.

Personal response, 4 marks: What is Leacock satirising, and is the satire relevant today? Give two reasons. (4 marks)

Step	Marks
Target 1: artificial beauty / vanity in portraits	1
Target 2: arrogant professional ignoring the customer	1
Relevance reason 1 (e.g. beauty filters)	1
Relevance reason 2 (e.g. pressure to look perfect online)	1

Where students lose marks in With the Photographer

The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.

Mistake: Saying the narrator was pleased or ashamed at the proof
MCQ distractors suggest delight or shame.
Do this: Remember the point: he cannot recognise himself.
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Retelling the story instead of answering the part
Students write the whole plot for a 3-mark part about one moment.
Do this: Answer only what each sub-question asks; use the story's events as evidence.
Usually costs: Time and focus; content marks for the missed sub-question.
Mistake: Missing the satire
Students treat the story as only a funny incident.
Do this: In theme answers, name what Leacock is mocking (artificial beauty, professional arrogance).
Usually costs: Analysis marks.
Mistake: Personal response without reasons
Students give an opinion but no support; the 2027 scheme accepts 'any plausible response' only with matching justification.
Do this: Opinion + two reasons linked to incidents.
Usually costs: Most of a 4-mark part.

Practice questions on With the Photographer

Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.

Q1 · 3 marks · Short answerBoard level
How long does the narrator wait before the photographer attends to him, and how does he pass the time?
Hint
Old reading material in the waiting room.
Answer
He waits about an hour, reading old magazines lying in the waiting room, while the photographer shows no hurry.
Q2 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
In the studio the narrator at first goes along with the photographer's instructions. What finally makes him protest, and what happens while he is protesting?
Hint
'too full'; 'Snick!'
Answer
When the photographer says he still does not quite like the face because it is a trifle too full, the narrator protests that it is his own face, which he has lived with for forty years and learned to love. As he starts to rise, the photographer pulls the string and takes the photograph, pleased to have caught the features 'in a moment of animation'. His protest is ignored and simply becomes part of the picture.
Q3 · 4 marks · Long answerHarder board level
Write two words that describe the photographer and two that describe the narrator, with one incident to support each pair.
Hint
Studio scene and ending.
Answer
Photographer: arrogant and insensitive (he criticises the narrator's face and alters it without asking). Narrator: patient and sincere (he waits an hour and obeys, then pleads for a true likeness of himself).
Q4 · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
Suggest an alternative title for the story and justify it.
Hint
Focus on the theme of identity.
Answer
For example, 'Is It Me?' or 'The Face That Wasn't Mine': it captures the central moment and theme, the narrator's loss of his own identity in an 'improved' picture.
Q5 · 4 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency
'The photographer is an artist, not a villain.' Do you agree? Give two reasons.
Hint
Consider his intention and his treatment of the customer.
Answer
Partly: he genuinely believes he is improving the picture, as an artist would. But a professional must serve the client: he ignores the narrator's wish for a likeness and humiliates him. Accept either stand with two matching reasons.
Q6 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
What does the narrator's request reveal about why people keep photographs?
Hint
Memory after death.
Answer
Photographs are kept as records of real people, so that friends and family can remember them truly, especially after they are gone. A false, flattering picture defeats this purpose.
Q7 · 1 mark · MCQHarder board level
Which of these best describes the tone of the ending?
(a) triumphant
(b) bitter and sorrowful
(c) indifferent
(d) cheerful
Hint
How does the narrator feel as he leaves?
Answer
(b) bitter and sorrowful

Test your recall

Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.

1.Who wrote 'With the Photographer'?Show answer
Stephen Leacock.
2.What does the narrator want?Show answer
An ordinary photograph that looks like him.
3.How does the narrator react to the proof?Show answer
He cannot recognise himself and asks, 'Is it me?'
4.What is the main target of the satire?Show answer
Artificial 'improvement' of faces and the arrogance of the photographer.
5.Why does the narrator want a true likeness?Show answer
So that his friends can keep a picture of his real face after his death.

Quick revision checklist

The night before the exam: can you do each of these without looking?

Can you narrate the four stages: wait, studio, proof, protest?
Can you describe the photographer's manner with two examples?
Can you explain why the narrator asks 'Is it me?'
Can you state what Leacock satirises?
Can you connect the story to beauty filters in two sentences?

With the Photographer: frequently asked questions

What is the theme of With the Photographer?

The loss of identity when a person's real face is replaced by an artificial, 'improved' one, together with satire on vanity and professional arrogance.

Why does the narrator say 'Is it me?'

Because the photographer has retouched the picture so heavily that the narrator cannot recognise his own face.

Is With the Photographer a humorous story?

Yes. Leacock was a humorist, and the studio scene is comic, but the ending turns serious as the narrator pleads for his real face.

Based on: CISCE ICSE 2027 English syllabus (Paper 2: Literature in English); CISCE ICSE 2027 Appendix I: List of Prescribed Books; CISCE ICSE 2027 Specimen Question Paper and Draft Marking Scheme: Literature in English (English Paper 2); CISCE Analysis of Pupil Performance 2025: Literature in English (examiners' comments)