Fotografie jako prostor sociálního diskurzu

Bc. Jana Dvořáčková, Ph.D.

Bakalářská práce

Photography as a Space of Social Discourse

Anotace:

O soucasne zapadni spolecnosti se nekdy hovori jako o civilizaci obrazu - nase vedeni o svete je mnohem vice vysledkem pusobeni obrazu, nez jakekoli neprostredkovane zkusenosti nebo pisma. Vyfotografovano nebo jinak obrazove zachyceno je uz takrka vse a tyto obrazy sveta putují prostednictvím globalizovaných medii napric zemekouli, prostupuji nasi kazdodenni zkusenost. Hlavním problemovým okruhem, ktery si tato bakalarská prace klade za cil priblizit, je tema fotograficke reprezentace reality. Fotografii provazi už od jejich pocatku mytus, ze to, co zobrazuje, je primym, objektivnim a tedy pravdivým odrazem skutecnosti a mozna prave v tom spociva jeji pusobivost. Do procesu tvorby fotografie vsak vstupuje mnoho promennych zahrnujicich jak napriklad samotny vyber fotografovanych objektu, tak uplatneni ruznych profesnich, estetickych i ideologickych norem atd. To se tyka jak umelecké fotografie, tak fotografie dokumentujici - distinkce mezi nimi je z tohoto uhlu pohledu neostra. Dalsi okolnost znemoznujici fotografii fungovat jako prosty odraz reality vstupuje nevyhnutne v okamziku jeji recepce - to, jak pak bude dana fotografie interpretovana, neni oddlitelne od kontextu, ve kterém se objevi, a zavisi take na vedeni, jez je jeji/mu ctenari/ctenarce dostupne. Fotografii tedy nelze chapat jako neproblematicky otisk reality, je spise prostorem produkce vyznamu. Poskytuje urcite - avsak zdaleka ne jedine mozne - formy interpretace reality. Predstavuje jeden ze systemu reprezentace, skrze nez jsou ustavovany vyznamy veci, udalostí a identit. Lze ji chapat jako text - text, ktery se, spolu s jinymi texty podílí na konstituovani kultury, chapane zde jako univerzum sdilenych vyznamu. Klicovým pojmem s reprezentaci spojenym je pak diskurz - ten predstavuje konkretni zpusob, jakym jsou urcite veci interpretovany a reprezentovany. Analyzou konstruováni vyznamu, vizualizovanym jazykem, poetikou zobrazování, se zabyva semiotika (Roland Barthes). Po kratkem predstaveni prinosu semiotiky pro analyzu fotografickych reprezentaci se tato prace zameruje predevsim na oblast politiky fotografického zobrazovani - na mechanismy moci, ktere se ke zobrazovani vazi a roli ruznych reprezentacnich praktik v regulaci lidskeho jednani, konstrukci identit a subjektivit (Michel Foucault). Predstaven je zde diskurzivni pristup k fotografické reprezentaci. Tato prace muze byt chapana i jako teoretický podklad k aplikaci diskurzivní analýzy jako metody zkoumani fotografie.

Abstract:

Contemporary Western culture is sometimes called the civilization of images. Our knowledge of the world is influenced far more by the various images of the world, than it is by the result of some unmediated experience or the written texts. Almost everything has been already photographed or filmed, and these images of the world are, due to the globalized media, moving round the world with enormous speed and pervading all strata of society. The mutual permeating of the images with our everyday experience raises many new theoretical issues. This work concentrates mainly on the questions connected with the photographic representation of the reality. Since its beginnings, photography as a medium has been accompanied by the myth of being objective and true reflection of reality. Although the myth of photographic truth can be called into question in the case of artistic photography, where we tend to expect some elements of subjective interpretation, it also profits in some way from the truth status connected with photography in general - it is certainly quite an important source of its magic. But equally, also the non-artistic or documenting photography cannot be conceived as a simple mirror of the reality resulted from the work of fully objective machine. It is inferred from many phenomena occuring at the level of its production (and also in the part of its reception). Photography is always something that has been worked on, composed, constructed and treated according to professional, aesthetic, or ideological norms. The objects photographed must have been chosen by someone. From this perspective, the distinction between the artistic and non-artistic photography cannot be seen as clear. Thus, more than a means of mirroring the Reality itself, a photograph can rather be understood as a place of social production of the meaning. It provides certain (but not the only possible) forms of interpretations of the reality. It is one of the systems of representation, through which the meanings of things, events and identities are constructed. It can be conceived as a text - text which, together with other texts, constitutes the culture (understood here as a universe of shared meanings). The central concept connected with representation is the discourse: a way of representing knowledge about a particular topic at a particular historical moment. It is especially semiotics, which is concerned with the analysis of this production of the meaning, with the vizualized language, with what has been called the poetics of representation. But since this production of meaning is inevitably connected with the power, after introduction of this semiotic approach (especially the work of Roland Barthes), I concentrate mainly on the politics of photographic representation - on the mechanisms of the work of the power connected with representation and on the role of various representational practices (regimes of representation) in the regulation of human conduct, the construction of identities and subjectivities (Michel Foucault). Attention is also paid to the possibilities of discourse analysis as a method of exploring photography.

Klíčová slova

fotografie, photography, reprezentace, representation, diskurz, discourse, sémiotika, semiotics, Saussure, Barthes, Foucault, mýtus fotografické pravdy, myth of photographic truth

Jazyk práce: čeština

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 5. 6. 2006

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Obhajoba proběhla 5. 6. 2006
• Vedoucí: doc. PhDr. Mikuláš Bek, Ph.D.

Masarykova univerzita

Filozofická fakulta

Bakalářský studijní program / obor:
Obecná teorie a dějiny umění a kultury / Sdružená uměnovědná studia