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Photographer Marie Tomanová and American Youth
Kopelentová, Tereza ; Turek, Pavel (advisor) ; Géla, František (referee)
This master's thesis aims to explore the body of documentary and photographic work by Marie Tomanová, a prominent Czech photographer who has spent more than a decade living in the United States. Tomanová is now an established part of a long-standing tradition of American documentary photographers who seek to capture the emerging young generations and their culture. In its theoretical part, the thesis will provide a brief history of youth culture in American society from the beginning of the 20th century all the way to the early aughts. It will explore the context in which photographers have depicted youth culture since the mid-20th century, with a particular focus on Marie Tomanová's work as one of the most prominent contemporary representatives of the genre. The practical part consists of a visual social semiotic analysis of selected photographs by various photographers introduced earlier in the thesis. The analysis will attempt to decode the fundamental values encoded within these photographs of young Americans, compare any changes in these values over time and also focus on differences in approach among the individual authors. Finally, this thesis will attempt to place Tomanová's body of work within the lineage of American documentary photographers. The results of these analyses will be...
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Documentary Photography: The Ďáblice Housing Estate
McGoldrick, Stella ; Géla, František (advisor) ; Lábová, Sandra (referee)
The primary focus of this bachelor thesis is centred around the architecturally significant Ďáblice housing estate. The theoretical part delves into its history and architecture, incorporating an interview with architect Ondřej Tuček, the grandson of the chief designer of the estate. Its photographical section presents the basic concepts and history of three pertinent photographic genres: documentary, street and urban photography. Furthermore, the thesis includes an annexed photographic publication dedicated to contemporary life in the Ďáblice housing estate, titled Krásné sídliště Ďáblice.
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Documentary photography: Climbing as a lifestyle
Dlesková, Veronika ; Géla, František (advisor) ; Lábová, Sandra (referee)
The bachelor thesis entitled Documentary photography: Climbing as a lifestyle is divided into two parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with the historical connection between documentary photography and high-altitude mountaineering. Furthermore, I study the representation of climbing photography in media. The thesis presents the genre of documentary photography and explores the difference between documentary photography and reportage photography. I present the cameras used by climbers in the first half of the 20th century while climbing the highest peaks in the Himalayas. I briefly describe the methods used to document climbing on Mount Everest nowadays. In the practical part of my thesis, I document the current generation of Czech climbers, for which I use both the photos taken on the rocks and the pictures presenting an authentic insight into the lives of people who call climbing their lifestyle.
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The Private and the Public in the Work of Libuše Jarcovjáková
Matějková, Kateřina ; Magidová, Markéta (advisor) ; Vartecká, Anna (referee)
The bachelor thesis is dedicated to the interpretation of the work of the Czech female photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková and aims to emphasize its importance and uniqueness for Czech and world photography. The theoretical part introduces the author, her cultural background, consisting of important personalities of the Czechoslovak art scene, and her still- evolving work and projects. It offers an insight into the world of photography through the search for similarities and differences with the work of Nan Goldin, with whom she is often compared in the Czech and foreign context. It focuses mainly on the work from the 1970s and 1980s, presented in the author's book Černé roky (The Black Years), its setting in the contemporary context, and the interpretation of selected photographs in terms of form and content. The interpretation focuses mainly on the search for the boundaries of the private and public, the issue of censorship and self-censorship, and the projection of these influences into the author's photographs. The didactic part of the thesis is a pedagogical project combining the knowledge and experience from the theoretical and practical parts of the work. It focuses on introducing students to documentary photography, the work of Libuše Jarcovjáková, and the awareness of their own approach to...
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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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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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Recreational Sportsmen's Community of FK Plácek Spořilov in documentary photography
Blatný, Jiří ; Géla, František (advisor) ; Lábová, Sandra (referee)
This practical bachelor's thesis aimed to create a photographic documentary about the recreational sportsmen's community of FK Plácek Spořilov football club. The photographic publication - which is the product of this practical thesis - brings testimony about sport and other social activities of the club and its operations. It is also a fragmental depiction of the place where most of those activities take place. The theoretical part of the thesis firstly attempts to define the concept of documentary photography as well as to show how its understanding has changed in history. It perceives sport as a socially significant fenomenon and it therefore lays out the aspects that place it into such a category. Followingly, the thesis endeavours to discuss the capacity of documentary photography to offer a deeper insight into social and psychological aspects of sports. Last but not least, it highlights selected work of those Czech documentary photographers who have related themselves to sport themes.
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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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