Katarina Šoškić
Year
2016–2026
Supervisor
Martin Krenn
Reflective Documentation
https://phaidra.bibliothek.uni-ak.ac.at/detail/o:76030
This dissertation examines photographing as a research practice, analysing the gestures and processes that precede and condition the creation of an image. Drawing on my experience as a professional photographer, I investigate the limits of photography as a research tool and the interplay between practitioner and researcher perspectives. Curious about the limits of the photographic medium and the roles a photographer and their choices play in documenting, depicting, and generating realities, I experimented with non-linear forms of text construction, treated my camcorder as a writing tool, and created chapters of an imaginary audio-photo book, while using walking and live reading as additional tools. Methodologies of walking, circling, switching points of view, filming, and reading in public were employed as means of reporting on the experience of photographing and its durational nature, rather than focusing solely on a standalone photographic image and its documentary potential. This thesis situates these practices within broader debates in artistic research, phenomenology, and the epistemology of photography. Text, image, and voice are treated as equal contributors, producing non-linear, fragmentary narratives that challenge conventional documentary forms. Insights are exposed in three complementary books: the formal written dissertation, a documentation of the works created during research, and a compilation of sketches, notes, and other open-ended materials. Together, they present photography as a layered, process-oriented mode of inquiry that foregrounds experience, mediacy, and the act of research itself.