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Reinventing the blurry oval: Practitioner perceptions of deepfakes as a tool for anonymisation in documentary film and video journalism
Weatherald, Nathalie Alice ; Lábová, Sandra (advisor) ; Silverio, Robert (referee)
In 2020, the documentary film Welcome to Chechnya disguised the sources it portrayed using deepfake-like 'digital masks', to wide acclaim: many described the use of the technology in this way to be game-changing for the industry. This qualitative study examines documentary filmmakers' and video journalists' (practitioners') perceptions of the benefits and limitations of the use of deepfakes, or AI-assisted synthetic media, to anonymise sources in their work, in the context of theoretical understandings of photographic realism and applied journalistic ethics. Through one unstructured interview with the film's visual effects supervisor, Ryan Laney, and eight semi-structured interviews with practitioners who have previously visually disguised sources, the study identifies four key themes of practitioners' views about the use of deepfakes as a tool to anonymise: the impacts on practitioner-source relations, practical considerations, aesthetic impacts of synthetic media and broader industry implications. Overall, practitioners emphasised the limitations of the potential use of deepfakes in this context, much more than the benefits.
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War Photojournalism and Violence in Worldwide Photojournalism Contests
Patzner, Dominik ; Lábová, Sandra (advisor) ; Silverio, Robert (referee)
This master's thesis researches how often and how worldwide photojournalism competitions award photographs that capture phenomena such as war conflicts, violence, and their consequences. The basis of this research is a hypothesis that shots capturing described phenomena dominate some of the contest categories. The theoretical part contains fundamental information related to the topic of the research - negativity as a news value and the concept of war frame in the journalism field. Peace journalism and solutions journalism have developed to answer to the high rate of negative content in the news, as they do not focus on the negative aspects of events, which presents a different approach to journalistic work. The relation between those two approaches and photojournalism is described in more detail, so is a brief overview of worldwide contests and their influence on the photojournalism field. The research part of the thesis combines content analysis with semiotic analysis and delves into the frequency of awarding described photographs and the content of the photographs, as well as the development in awarding such pictures in time. The research also includes the analysis of several photographs that can be considered a part of peace or solutions journalism. The semiotic analysis then explores such pictures in...
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Mourning and visual tropes in photojournalism
Jarolímková, Zuzana ; Průchová Hrůzová, Andrea (advisor) ; Silverio, Robert (referee)
About the repetition in art first has written in the 19th century the art historian Aby Warburg who described them as the formula of pathos. He pointed out that these gestures were connected by human emotion which repeats itself independently of the culture. His work inspired Marienne Hirsch who came up with the term memory figures which are used in the visual culture as a representation of a certain historic event. They are part of creating the "postmemory", especially in connection with the second world war. Nowadays, our space is more saturated with photos than with paintings. However, we still can see the influence of art from history and some photographers try to reproduce famous scenes. With inspiration from previous studies, Marta Zarzycka a Martijn Kleppe focused on this "trend" visual tropes which are used not only for better understatement of photos but also for stronger influence on readers. The thesis Mourning and visual tropes in photojournalism aim to show this trend in current media outlets on the tropes of mourning which are connected with the pandemic of coronavirus and war in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.
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The cultural significance of grafifiti and its image portrayed by the media
Rufer, Jan ; Géla, František (advisor) ; Silverio, Robert (referee)
The main objective of this work is to present the phenomenon of graffiti via a series of photographs, to introduce the subculture which stems from graffiti making and to actualize it in the context of the contemporary media environment in the Czech Republic. The content of the practical part was created in collaboration with the Czech CSR crew during several different events. In the theoretical passage, I briefly introduce the history, development and transformations of this subculture in the Czech Republic. The thesis consists of two segments - theoretical and practical. The practical one is realised in the form of a photobook titled Art living by night. It is the pillar of this bachelor thesis. The photographs were taken by a digital and analogue camera during 2021 to early 2022. They are included to document the process of graffiti making itself through the eyes of a non- participating un-biased observer during various occasions and in different settings. Ido not focus on the process of photography itself as much as the content of the images itself. In the theoretical part I lean into the topic of how graffiti, and the subculture associated with it, is perceived by selected domestic media outlets and what image of this artistic discipline show the public. This segment is primarily defined by the...
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Lives of the Indian community in Czechia
Kohoutová, Magdaléna ; Géla, František (advisor) ; Silverio, Robert (referee)
In the practical part of this thesis, under the title Life of the Indian community in the Czech Republic, I documented the everyday life of several representatives of this nationality. My goal was to show how and why this very small minority lives here. In the photo book that emerged from this effort, I captured the Eastern and Western worlds colliding in their lives. The theoretical part of this work is devoted to journalistic photography, specifically photojournalism and documentary photography. These two genres are very close, they even overlap in many ways. I will therefore determine what the differences between them are. The next chapters already touch on the practical part of my work. I describe how to work with the depiction of foreign cultures in a photo document. I will take postcolonialist theory and its understanding of the relationship between Western civilization and the rest of the world as a guide. Subsequently, I will present the work of several contemporary Czech photographers who work with foreign cultures. I will look into their style and focus in particular on their understanding of the intercultural scale of their work.
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The cultural significance of grafifiti and its image portrayed by the media
Rufer, Jan ; Géla, František (advisor) ; Silverio, Robert (referee)
This practical bachelor thesis documents the creation of graffiti. In the practical part it documents the work of the Czech CSR writer crew during several different events and in the theoretical part it presents the history, development and transformation of the graffiti subculture in the Czech Republic. The work consists of two parts - theoretical and practical. The practical part, entitled Art under the cover of night, is the main part of this bachelor thesis. The photobook consists of a series of photographs taken with digital and analogue cameras. The photographs were taken during 2021 and early 2022. The aim of this thesis is to present the phenomenon of graffiti through a series of photographs. The photographs document the actual process of creating graffiti from the role of an observer on different occasions in different environments. The thesis aims to present and document the process of creation itself in a practical part. In the theoretical part I also focus on the way graffiti is (and the subculture associated with it) is perceived in selected domestic media and what image the media convey to the public about this artistic discipline. In the theoretical part I first define the slang used in the subculture. Next, I briefly introduce how graffiti has developed in the Czech Republic. In the...
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Vague Terrain - Far Side of the City
Třísková, Nora ; Géla, František (advisor) ; Silverio, Robert (referee)
This practical bachelor thesis examines the phenomenon of vague terrain through the medium of documentary photography. The work is focused mainly on capturing the variability of those places and exploring their meaning for the city and its citizens. The photobook Vague Prague is part of the bachelor thesis. The first part of the thesis is concerned with clarifying the terms such as vague terrain, non-place, brownfield and other terms which are necessary for understanding this topic. Furthermore, the thesis connects those concepts with the medium of photography and describes the change of approach in documenting peripheries and the transformation of visual narrative, which happened in this field in the second half of 20th century. The second part is a sixty-page long photobook, which uses the medium of documentary photography to capture the appearance of vague spaces in Prague. Photographs in this cycle combine classic documentary techniques with a more conceptual approach to the visual work. The cycle shows one of possible ways to see and understand vague spaces and potentially even fully appreciate their significance for the city.
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The Perception of Authenticity in Documentary Photography from Czech Photographers'Viewpoint
Novotníková, Radka ; Silverio, Robert (advisor) ; Štoll, Martin (referee)
The subject of this thesis is to examine the work and thinking of Czech documentary photographers, and to evaluate how they are dealing with authenticity not only in photography but also in their professions; as it is perceived as an objective way to capture reality. Photography is considered a proof of existence of the captured moments and that is why it is often perceived as a trustworthy medium. However, it is frequently neglected that photographs are moments detached from time and context, and that they are subject to the author's thinking and decision on how the situation is going to be captured and presented to the public. In the theoretical part, this thesis is dealing with the definition of authenticity and the perception of photography as an object that is credibly portraying reality of the world. These findings are consequently compared through opinions of six Czech documentary photographers, that were obtained through interviews.
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Semiotic analysis of cover photographs in Vogue magazine international editions
Čápová, Tereza ; Silverio, Robert (advisor) ; Lábová, Sandra (referee)
The central theme of the diploma thesis is fashion photography on the cover pages of Vogue magazine international editions. In the empirical section, the author uses a combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative semiotic analysis based on the concept of the French semiotics Roland Barthes. The quantitative section of the analysis works with a sample of 87 photographs, from which 8 images are later selected for the semiotic part. At the denotative level, the analysis looks for common and different signs of individual editions. At the level of the connoted image, the author tries to decode the contained signs and their meanings. The semiotic analysis traces linguistic messages, the narrative, the paradigmatic and syntagmatic arrangement of photography, or the presence of national identity. Part of the work is also a theoretical section dedicated to fashion magazines and changes in the aesthetics of fashion photography. This part contains an excursion into the history and present of fashion photography and presents prominent personalities in the field. In the theoretical part, the author defines the terms that form the ground for empirical research. At the end of the work, the results of the analysis and their interpretation are presented.
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