A self-reflexive approach to glocal photography: A social medium design

In the context of a socio-cultural, technological and philosophical turn in which global and local aspects are intertwined, how a photograph should be criticized can be questioned. Following this question, this study aims at inquiring to what extent Gillian Rose's (2012) critical visual methodology and Pierre Boudieu's (2010) self-reflexive approach can respond to the evaluation of photograph in this context. These two approaches have been explored in terms of their comprehensiveness through a case study realized on a Web site designed for this study. Following Rose's (2012) interpretation questions, it has been determined that a group of photographers, critics and viewers constitute the participants. Observations of the activities of the participants on the Web site and semi-structured interviews have been utilised as data gathering methods. When the interpretation process of the two terms have been compared, having the information about the "context" of a photograph has emerged as one of the key themes. It can be concluded that the application of the aforementioned methodology and the approach has demonstrated the importance of social, technological, aesthetic context of a photograph and the self-reflexive evaluation of the critics, the viewers and the researcher in the criticism process. Thus, through this study, several significant points on photography criticism criteria and the effect of the tendencies (habituses) of the photographers, the viewers, the critics and the researcher resulting from their personal and social background on the production and evaluation process have been established.