Thesis Title: Sociological Semiotic Analysis of Pilgrimage Photographs of Mashhad in the Digital Era
By: Vesal Torabi
Supervisor: Dr. Mehdi Moghimnejad
Degree: MA
Course of Study: Photography
March 2021
Abstract
Pilgrimage Photographs can be studied and researched from many aspects such as cultural, social, political, historical, semiotic, and the like. Semiotics takes place as a semantic process in the context of culture, so the study of these images is worth considering from a semiotic point of view. In this research, the author has tried to find a connection between the meaning , these images and society by using the concepts of social semiotics of the image. Although Pilgrimage Photographs is one of the most common types of photography in Iran, it has been less studied. A large percentage of Iranian families have a photo with this theme on their family albums, especially their old albums. With the decline of this genre of photography and due to the lack of archives of these photographs, as well as changes in the process and type of recording, the study and research in relation to it is very thought-provoking. The research method is descriptive-analytical and the photos are collected using field research. By examining the images, a lot of information was obtained about pilgrimage photography and cultural, social and political differences in the analog and digital eras. The present study analyzes the changes in relationships between family members and in clothing (especially women's clothing) over a period of about one hundred years. Moreover, the effects of studio photography in the transition from analog to digital and its influence on the customs and traditions that have prevailed in the culture of Imam Reza pilgrimage for many years have been studied in this research.