The master thesis Bedřich Kocek and Czech Press Photography is concerned with the life and work of Bedřich Kocek - Czech photojournalist who worked in the renowned journal Svět v obrazech (translated as World in Pictures) for over thirty years. The theoretical part specifies the genre of journalistic photography and its development from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to the 1980s. Furthermore, the development of the journal Svět v obrazech serves as an example for outlining the media and political context in Czechoslovakia since the end of World War II, when the periodical was established, until the 1980s, when Bedřich Kocek left the profession of a photojournalist. An especially valuable and vital part of the thesis is a chapter about the life of Bedřich Kocek, which has not been previously researched and described in detail. That section is based on personal interviews with the photographer using the oral history method. Moreover, the thesis explores the photographic work of Bedřich Kocek through the use of compositional analysis as well as the characteristic features of his pictures, which were part of the reports produced for Svět v obrazech.

Obwohl das dokumentarische Bild als beglaubigte Aufzeichnung einer außermedialen Realität als Diskursgegenstand bereits seit Längerem dekonstruiert ist, scheint die Faszination am Dokumentarischen nahezu ungebrochen. Die stete Bezugnahme auf das Dokumentarische in unterschiedlichen Diskursen der Fotografie zeugt davon. Auch zahlreiche künstlerische Auseinandersetzungen rekurrieren seit den 80er-Jahren verstärkt auf dokumentarische Konzepte und Formate. Ausgehend von diesem Paradoxon, der Dekonstruktion des Dokumentarischen in Theoriekontexten und dem Wiedererstarken dokumentarischer Formate in der Fotografie und Kunst, sucht die vorliegende Arbeit nach den Ursachen einer offenkundig anhaltenden Faszination am Dokumentarischen. Dabei richtet sie den Blick speziell auf künstlerische Fotografien, die Gebrauchsweisen der Fotografie aufgreifen, welche per se mit dem Dokumentarischen affiziert werden, wie die Pressefotografie, die kriminalistische Fotografie und die Amateurfotografie. Sie zeigt, über welche Strategien das Dokumentarische dort produktiv umgesetzt wird. Lässt sich jeder Dokumentarismus erst einmal als Versuch lesen, in der Repräsentation das Reale zu verbildlichen, beziehen sich die vorgestellten künstlerischen Arbeiten von Jeff Wall, Thomas Demand, Sophie Calle und Richard Billingham zwar auf ein Begehren nach dem Realen, machen aber gleichzeitig den Verlust des Realen in ihren Erzählungen von der Wirklichkeit erfahrbar. In ihrer Ambivalenz vermitteln die künstlerischen Arbeiten ein Konzept des Dokumentarischen als mobiles System, das dieses nicht als Kategorie, Genre oder Stil festschreibt, sondern als Handlung begreift, die das permanente Ineinandergreifen von Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Dokumentarischen nachvollzieht. Insofern erweisen sich die Kunst und das Dokumentarische als nicht polar, denn über ihre Beziehung zum Realen kristallisiert sich dieses als das gemeinsame Dritte der beiden heraus. / Although the documentary image as authenticated record of a reality beyond the media has, as the object of discourse, long been deconstructed, the fascination with the documentary would appear to be ongoing. The constant references to the documentary in a variety of photography discourses bears witness to this. In addition, countless artistic treatments since the Eighties have referred back to documentary concepts and formats. In the light of this paradox as well as the deconstruction of the documentary in theoretical contexts and the renewed gaining of strength of documentary formats in photography and art, this study investigates the reasons for the evident persistent fascination with the documentary. In the process, artistic photographs in particular are examined which reference conventions in photography that are associated per se with the documentary, such as for example press photography, criminalistic photography, and amateur photography. The strategies by which the documentary is productively implemented are demonstrated here. If every form of documentarism can be read first of all as an attempt to express the real visually in the representation, then the artistic works by Jeff Wall, Thomas Demand, Sophie Calle and Richard Billingham that are presented here may indeed reference a desire for the real, but at the same time they make it possible in their telling of reality to experience the loss of the real. It is through their ambivalence that the artistic works convey a concept of the documentary as a mobile system that does not codify it as a category, genre or style, but rather perceives it as an act that comprehends the documentary''s constant intertwining of construction and deconstruction. As such, it is shown that art and the documentary are not polar, because through their relationship to reality this relationship is shown to crystalize out as the common third party for both.

During the last decades, the presence of visual media has increased dramatically. However, very little empirical research has been carried out to determine the implication of the medium photograph as a visual information transmitter. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the characteristics of professional press photos that relate to war and armed conflicts and to examine the framing of victimhood. A thorough literature review as well as an iconographic interpretation of World Press Photos serves to ascertain data in order to permit answering the research questions.   The World Press Photo Foundation is the subject of research as it represents the most prestigious international competition for press photography at present and thus acts as an agenda-setter. That highlights the implication of its decisions about professional photographs since its coverage of certain issues biases the international media coverage of the same. It also affects the development of professional photojournalism. In this context the meaning of photographs in today’s visual media societies can be discussed.