History in the frame of Photo (Discourse analysis of Kermanshah Family Photos from Qajar to Revolution)

The primitive Images on the walls of the caves indicate the desire of humans to represent their lives or express their wishes. These motifs have an undeniable relationship with the macro realities of the production method, political system, power hierarchy and value system. We examine these axes by focusing on the photo as a text. Based on theory and method of semiotics and poststructuralist discourse analysis, we have tried to describe these pictorial texts in the first place; then analyzed the implicit meanings and secondary meanings of the photographs; and Finally, analyzed their relation to the dominant social and discourse trends in the three periods of Qajar, Pahlavi and the first decade after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The field of the research is family photos in Kermanshah and finally 32 sample photos were selected and analyzed. The analysis of photos of the Qajar period shows the dominance of the patriarchal discourse and assigning the phenomenon of photography to the elite and political class. During the first period of Pahlavi, photography was popular among the wealthy class, and in Pahlavi II, among the wealthy and middle class; in the first period of patriarchy, modernism (Westernization) and in the second period, feminism and consumerism are the central signifiers. In the post-Islamic revolution period, (1980d) with the spread of photography tools among the common people, we can see traditional clothing, the creation of an intimate atmosphere among family members and the reduction of patriarchal discourse. Findings show that overall the process of developments in Kermanshah and national developments in this area are similar. Also, in this historical process, technology has served the wishes of the ruling discourses, but in case of differences between the two, technology has gone its own way and was not necessarily at the command of the rulers.