Documentary photography has experienced an unexpected transition in recent years. Despite its historical incompatibility with art, it today enjoys the reputation of an established tendency in the space of art institutions. Contemporary documentarism is increasingly emerging into the domain of artists that experiment with new ways of narration by which it is progressively moving away from the framework of traditional objective reporting. Into their reportages these artists are integrating artistic strategies, special photographic mediums and technologies such as military and surveillance cameras. Transformation of documentary photography into a novel form of art triggers as much enthusiasm as it does hesitation in the midst of its critics, but seems the most fateful for its spectator. The main hypothesis of this work is that the spectator in front of contemporary documentary photographs taken with military and surveillance cameras, is put into a new role of a spectator-(co)perpetrator and by that ceases to be a passive observer and mere eyewitness, which is regarded to be the fundamental convention of objective reporting. The analysis of contemporary documentary photographs will thus find answers to two research questions. Firstly, how do such photographic practices change the view and the role of the observer, and secondly, in what ways do photographers in the selected works deviate from codes and conventions of photojournalism. The thesis will therefore focus on three intertwined fields: the site of the production of an image, codes and conventions of photojournalism and the gaze of the spectator. The purpose of the present work is to evaluate through the view of the spectator, what is the social function of this evasive, yet at the same time the most influential photographic practice of all times.
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