Photography and Cultural Turn: A Study on Technological Role of Camera and Photos in Cultural Changes of Iranian Society

Post phenomenology tries to put man, world, and technology in a closed relationship with each other and specifies the relation made by technology between man and his world. Camera as a technology tool and cultural media, with regard to the context it is located in, creates special socio-cultural concepts. In this paper, attempts have been made to investigate the technological role of photography in the Iranian culture and society. The author attempts to find the relation that photography has created between man and his world in Iran, which has ultimately resulted in a decisive cultural turn. The author also attempts to present an analysis, based on Foucault`s archeological ideology, to identify the epistemological roots of this cultural turn. The results reveal that photography has led to a new ideology based on mundane phenomena and interrelations, and has also made Iran subject to modern cultural changes.