Documentary Photographer and Political Rally: Creating Meaning through Photography and Book Design in the End in This Generation Photo Book.

Abstract

        The End in This Generation is a documentary photo book that tells the story of the Thailand younger generation's political rally in 2020-2021, challenging beliefs, attitudes, cultures, and symbols under the rule of the older generation. This photography book includes two stages that affect the visual definition of political rallies. The first stage is the photographer documenting smaller rallies. The second stage is the selection and design of the photo book, which defines the theme by finding a collective meaning in all the sub-chronologies. In both stages, photography ethics must be used as a tool to check the work, as taking pictures at an assembly event like this may have physical, mental, and legal consequences for both the person in the picture and those involved.

          The results of the study revealed that photographers look for two types of meaning in their images: literal and symbolic. The literal meaning tells the viewer what is happening, while the symbolic meaning is the photographer's interpretation of the event, including the feelings and emotions of the participants. This interpretation can help viewers understand and feel the event more deeply. The selection and organization of photos for book design generates the third level of definition, the collective meaning of all events. The collective meaning from the photographic work causes the photographer to look for events or symbols that reflect this meaning in the picture book. Finding a collective meaning early will increase the chances of taking more relevant photos. Presenting photographs must be fair to the facts and to the people in the photographs as much as possible, even amid the limitations of working in conflict areas. Therefore, photography and image selection must be carefully reviewed using ethical frameworks, as situations can sometimes be physically violent, mentally harmful, or have legal implications. The ethical framework used should change depending on the situation, as events and consequences are so complex that no single ethical framework can be applied universally.