Exploring The Meaning Of Social Movements Photography

This thesis aims to explore the meaning of photography as an act in the process of democratization. Citizen’s individual action is extremely important for democratization. The whole society’s democratization much relies on the decisive power every citizen ought to possess. Democratization is not only a system nor can be completed by authorities’ action of giving power to citizens. Its key point lies in how citizens are able to change society through their own actions. This thesis tries to discuss this issue by analyzing how photographers participate in social movements. Photographic act is a democratic act itself. Everyone can challenge social norms and gain power through photography and photography can even used as means to change society. In the processes of democratization in Asian countries and regions, photographers took an important role for social transformation and social movements.However, what can exactly be achieved by photographers in the process of social movements? Beside defining them as a witness and recorder of history, and trying to resolve the problems of images analysis research, is there any ways to analyze their actions from other perspective? This critical thinking is effective in avoiding from heroism of photographers. Photographers don’t take pictures from purely objective stance nor have divine angle with which he/she can look at people high up in the sky. Some photographers might be able to keep suitable distance with objects based on the occupational moral as a journalist. Yet, the relationships between photographers and objects would be very complicated in many cases, which became my academic concern. However, although this phenomenon can be problematic, it doesn’t necessarily bring negative impacts. What is important for considering photographical practice as democratic action lies in how this problematic relationship shapes certain kinds of restrictions for photographers.This thesis mainly refers to the sociologist Anthony Giddens’ concepts "agency" and "reflection," also takes into account the ethnographical research "reflective" method suggested by Sarah Pink, in order to discuss how photographers connect themselves with objects. Considering the diverse issues Asian social movements evoked after the World War Ⅱ,I picked up suitable examples in different arenas for analysis:Japanese civil social movements from late 1950s to 1970s, environment issue and protect-home style movements happening after 1970s, and lastly community-based social movements developing from the former.