Thesis Title: Discours Analysis of Martyrs Photo Albums of Iran-Iraq War for Three Decades

By: Mohammad Mehrara

Supervisor: Dr. Mehdi Moghimnejad

Degree: MA

Course of Study: Photography 

September 2019

Abstract
Through all these years after the Iran-Iraq war, photos taken by famous and professional photographers has been assessed more than any other type of visual materials related to the war. Therefore, the visual story of the war has only been seen through the lens of these photographers’ cameras. However, every warrior who has been in the war, along with other life events, has a war memorial photo. Also in every martyr's house, some albums containing photos of him can be found. In this thesis after describing Discourse as a theoretical frame to this research, the dominant discourses from three decades 60s, 70s and 80s are being studied. Then by a short explanation of the martyr's photo album and its function, thorough discussion around the subject of martyr's photo album has been asserted in the third chapter. Studying and analyzing the martyr's photo albums has been done by interviewing their families and through the oral history. In the path of talking to the families, stories and hidden aspects behind the photos becomes more clear. Studying six different albums from Tehran and Mashhad (two metropolises in Iran) and also interviewing two persons who were always passionate about photos of the war, has played a great role in achieving the answers of this thesis questions. Most of the families helped to shape the concept of martyrs’ photo album by putting the photo of their martyred sons in a specific album and now these albums exist among many families and their pictures show their alignment with the dominant discourse in the sixties by representing the concept of holy defense. However, this alignment cannot be found in the seventies and eighties as powerful as the previous decade.
Keywords: photo album, Martyrs, Discourse analysis, Oral history, War photo