The purpose of this project was to produce visual work that examined a possible nostalgia that unfolds around the breakfast meal. The method of examination involved creating a process breakfast that was followed thirty times. The result of following this process was the taking of three hundred Polaroids that were then edited for their potential to visually reconstruct the ideal process breakfast. This process of discovery has resulted in a number of significant insight into the narrative of breakfast: that an idealized narrative could exist in the visualization of the process breakfast; that elements of nostalgia that may exist within the work are contingent on the viewer; and the level of authenticity of the project affects the nature of the idealization in effect.

This paper attempts to analyze different representations of "androgyny‟ as fashion tendency in contemporary fashion magazines (Vogue, i-D and LOVE Magazine) for the period of 2010 and 2011. In order to show the development of "androgyny‟ as fashion tendency, this study first explores how androgyny metamorphosed from a "hidden‟ signifier of unconventional sexuality to "visible‟ postmodern teaser for sexual identities. Currently, we live in the "Age of Androgyny‟ where the modern androgynous dandy is being seen as an aphrodisiac for the fashion industry. This study also tries to provide explanation of how "androgyny‟ and "dandyism‟ evolved from concepts to parallel trends in fashion due to their frequent and simultaneous reappearance in fashion media. In order to create nuanced portrayal in the understanding of androgyny and dandyism, qualitative method was used by describing, analysing and interpreting the representation of these trends in three different fashion and art publications. The fact that this tendency for "gender fusion‟ is increasingly finding its way into mainstream culture, with emphsis on the fashion industry, raises the question of whether the society is more open towards different gender expressions or is "androgyny‟ just another exploitative form for the fashion industry.

It is the moment for another extraordinary improvement of photography technology. With the great development of digital technology, some characteristics which are the main reason why photography is photography confront challenges. I question this situation and try to trace back the ¡§genie¡¨ of photography. Therefore, this thesis start the discussion of core elements of photography in phenomenology way, and try to realize the most important characteristics that make photography to be photography from these basic elements. Then the discussions expand out to several phenomenon between people and photo apparatus, including contradictions inside the apparatus and different situations of photographers and models. These topics last from the age of traditional photography to digital photography. At last, this thesis try to analyzes the appearance of digital world, and combine these analyses with the photography characteristics which are just discussed above, makes several classification for the works of digital photography. Above all, this thesis realizes that the most important influence of digitalization to photography is ¡§after¡¨ it. That is, most of the changes is happening in the phase of post-production but the process of photoing. Digitalization increase the way of photography, however, it¡¦s not mean that traditional photography is fading away. In addition, photos can be exist in ¡§pixel¡¨ way by digitalization technology. It also riches the usage and quantity of photo images. In this situation, it seems that these two different symbol systems, images and words, are about to meet each other in digital age.

As a new information technology, blog just becomes another space where users present themselves. It plays a role that extends individual¡¦s real life experiences. The personalized medium of individual style is not only the concrete product of user¡¦s own faith and value, but also the self-presentation stage of users. And blog has close correlation with user's self-approval construction. On the other hand, as a result of digital camera¡¦s prevailing, it accomplishes the blog¡¦s high popularizations. There¡¦re more and more photographic skilled people like using blogs to try their skills greatly or to accumulate their creations. Blogs have become the best platforms for them to cut a fine figure. A blog comprising photos is called photoblog. For them, photoblogs are their fervent personal stylish image dairies. This research takes spectacle/performance paradigm and dramaturgy as the main theories to dive into the behaviors of bloggers¡¦ self-presentations on the blogs, incising from blogger, audience, blog, articles and so on as breakthrough points. This research takes in-depth interview and text analysis as research methods to explore how bloggers present, read, and react with readers while they use blogs on the internet. According to the research findings, blog has transformed from personal media to personal performance stage, and photography has become one consumption tool which makes bloggers express themselves beyond writing. As a result, blogs have become new media-spectacle made by users¡¦ self-performances. Involving that, the ambit between culture-producer and culture-consumer has vanished. People who watch other¡¦s performances also become the performers who are watched by others at the same time. Blogs have been viewed as an exhibition where bloggers can promote ideas, reflect inner moods, realize and remind themselves by photography. People still can choose photography as new lifestyle which has stronger personal uniqueness. Then, people can express this kind of new lifestyle on the personalized blog platform and accomplish the circuit of spectacle/performance.

Univ., Habil.-Schr. u.d.T.: Stumberger, Rudolf: Klassen-Bilder - Konstitutionsbedingungen sozialdokumentarischer Fotografie 1900 bis 1945--Frankfurt/Main, 2005. / Literaturverz. S. 280 - 288.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2008. / Adviser: Karla Saari Kitalong. Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-204).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: Carla Poindexter. Includes bibliographical references (p. 31).

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 19, 2010). Thesis advisor: Professor Josephine Stealey. Includes bibliographical references.

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Andrew Moore’s series of photographs, Detroit Disassembled (2010), debuted in the United States in the midst of an escalating recession, mortgage and foreclosure crisis, and political fallout from federally-backed bank and automaker bailouts. Due to their subject matter, a number of viewers have interpreted the photographs as apt visualizations of contemporary crises. The photos depict the ruins of a cityscape scarred by decades of deindustrialization, economic decline, and significant outmigration. Shown in galleries, museums, on the Web, and published in a popular photo book, Moore’s images have circulated relatively widely. Viewers have responded to the photos through a variety of media outlets, and their impressions of the images have been melancholic, visceral, distressed, and deeply uncertain. Some viewers have attacked Moore for exploiting and aestheticizing Detroit’s suffering, others have perceived the images as a disturbing commentary on the state of the nation, and many have found the images beautiful, if desolate. The tensions between viewer responses, carrying the inflections of contemporary concerns, provide a valuable snapshot of how Moore’s photographs of Detroit have furnished a flashpoint and modulated a public discourse encompassing a number of interconnected apprehensions about the economy, deindustrialization, the environment, and social responsibility. However, Detroit’s protracted experience of decline and abandonment has made the intersection of aesthetics and urban politics in Moore’s photographs particularly controversial and troubling for some viewers. Because photographs are only partial glimpses of social and spatial phenomena, Moore’s images have proven versatile in their ability to distill and illustrate multifarious viewer concerns. / text