Analysing Photographs Sociologically: Photography as a Source of Insight into Social Structure and Social Change

• Název práce v češtině: Sociologická analýza fotografií. Fotografie jako zdroj poznání o sociální struktuře a sociální změně
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Analysing Photographs Sociologically: Photography as a Source of Insight into Social Structure and Social Change
• Klíčová slova: fotografie|sociologie fotografie|vizuální sociologie|sociální struktura|normalizace (ČSSR)
• Klíčová slova anglicky: photography|sociology of photography|visual sociology|social structure|Normalization (ČSSR)
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2022/2023
• Typ práce: bakalářská práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Katedra sociologie (21-KSOC)
• Vedoucí / školitel: doc. PhDr. Marek Skovajsa, M.A., Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 23.11.2022
• Datum zadání: 23.11.2022
• Schválení administrátorem: bylo schváleno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 24.11.2022
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 13.06.2023 09:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 08.05.2023
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 13.06.2023
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: Mgr. Jan Sládek, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

Theoretical background
In today’s world, we are constantly surrounded by visual stimuli. These may come in the form of advertisements, films, brand logos, art, videos, or photographs. According to some, our society has entered the third stage of communication. The first stage was the oral stage, where information was transferred orally through dialogue, which was nevertheless spatially limited. The second stage was influenced by the invention of writing, where information could be passed on to more people thanks to the invention of letterpress printing. According to some, we have arrived in the third stage, where we communicate through visual images that carry all sorts of information and meaning (Sztompka, 2007). This thesis will focus on one medium: photography.
Sociology and photography appeared around the same time in the middle of the 19. century. Auguste Comte first used the word “sociology” in his work Course of Positive Philosophy, while Louis Daguerre invented the daguerreotype, which essentially marks the birth of photography in 1839. Even though photography coincided with sociology, it did not find its place in this social science immediately. However, in social anthropology and ethnology, photography was used as a source of information in field research (examples: Bronisław Malinowski, Alfred R. Radcliffe-Brown, or Gregory Bateson & Margaret Mead).
When it comes to sociology, some, like Albion Small, editor of the American Journal of Sociology, were under the impression that photography was not objective and had an ideological influence on the viewer (Sztompka, 2007: 30). Moreover, one could not standardize and quantify photographs. This orientation towards quantity, statistics and data is something that still resides in today’s sociology. However, in the 1970s, photographers and sociologists such as B. Aron (Two Views of Venice, California, 1981), H. Becker (Photography and Sociology, 1974), D. Harper (Life of the Road, 1979) P. Ewen (The Beauty Ritual, 1979) or E. Goffman (Gender Advertisements, 1979) understood that photographs can hold valuable information about society and social life in general. Alongside this realization a new subfield of sociology was established- visual sociology. Today, visual sociology aims to explore society’s visual iconosphere to uncover the essential aspects and regularities of society, its culture and social structure (Sztompka, 2007).

Goals and methods
Using relevant literature, the goal of my thesis is to provide a comprehensive overview of the importance of photography in sociology and introduce the ways photographs can be used in sociological research to obtain information and assist in the analysis of social phenomena. Chapters will be devoted to general photography theory (Barthes, Flusser, Sontag, Benjamin) and sociology and photography (Becker, Sztompka and others). Since the empirical part of the thesis will analyse photos taken during a specific period of Czech history, a chapter with background on the topic as well as the social structure and culture of the society will be included.
Based on the theoretical findings, I aim to carry out a well-rounded analysis of photographs taken by Czechoslovak photographers during the period of normalization in Czechoslovakia (1969-1989), which I believe contain valuable information about the society. With the help of handbooks such as Sztompka (2007), Rose (2022), Leeuwen (2001), I will apply different methods of visual analysis to explore the ability of photographic images to bring forth sociologically relevant information about Czechoslovak society. This will lead me to answer my research question: Using various methods of interpretation and analysis, what can be inferred from photographs about the Czechoslovak society in the given period? The methods in question are as follows: content analysis, hermeneutic analysis, semiotic analysis, and structural interpretation (Sztompka, 2007).

Outcomes
My bachelor thesis will present the reader with a systematic discussion of how photography can contribute to sociological research. My work will also provide an example of what kind of contribution the sociological analysis of photographic images can make through an analysis of photographs on the topic of Czechoslovak society, hopefully broadening our understanding of what life was like in the past thanks to the photo documentation available.

Seznam odborné literatury

Barthes, R. (2009). Mythologies (Revised edition). Vintage Classics.
Barthes, R. (2020). Camera Lucida. Vintage Classics.
Becker, H. S. (1974). Photography and Sociology. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication, 1(1), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1525/var.1974.1.1.3
Becker, H. S. (1981). Exploring society photographically. University of Chicago Press.
Becker, H. S. (2008). Art Worlds. University of California Press.
Berger, J. (2008). Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books.
Berger, J. (2013). Understanding a Photograph. Penguin Books.
Bourdieu, P. (1996). Photography: A Middle-Brow Art. Stanford University Press.
Bourdieu, P., & Bourdieu, M. C. (2004). The peasant and photography. Ethnography, 5(4), 601–616.https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138104050701
Flusser, V. (2013). Za filosofii fotografie. Fra.
Keller, J. (2005). Dějiny klasické sociologie. SLON.
Láb, F. & Turek, P. (2009). Fotografie po fotografii. Karolinum.
Leeuwen, T. V., & Jewitt, C. (2001). The Handbook of Visual Analysis (First). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Raab, J. (2012). Visuelle Wissenssoziologie der Fotografie. Österreich Z Soziol 37, 121–142. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11614-012-0025-7
Rose, G. (2022). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials (Fifth). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Sontag, S. (2002). On Photography. Penguin Books.
Sztompka. P. (2007). Vizuální sociologie: fotografie jako výzkumná metoda. SLON.