M. Tech. (Department of Visual Arts and Design: Photography, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The study explores an alternative approach to Christian wedding photography that draws on the ritualistic narrative of the wedding as “social drama” (Turner.1974:54). Wedding photographers of the past have captured and illustrated the wedding story, with key moments, in a logical order reflecting a timeline showing the day’s events. The goal of the study is to investigates beyond the identified key moments and timeline of the Christian wedding so as to create awareness and develop understanding of the ritual and its phases and in turn, use this as a source to inspire, initiate and develop a method for the capture and production of the Christian wedding narrative in a new visual way. ‘Traditional’ Christian wedding photographers, brides-to-be and grooms-to-be are exposed and influenced by wedding photography styles of the past (which depict staged, static and controlled visual moments) or visual references from glossy magazines which place emphasis on branding, fashion-styled imagery and advertising, and lead to a romanticised and glamorised vision of possibility. The full Christian wedding narrative ritual is lost in visual representations that contain only a few glamorised and romanticised moments. This dissertation argues that the emotional, atmospheric and narrative moments of transformation of the couple on the day can be captured visually. The main research question of this study asks how one can use photography to capture that visual atmosphere and emotional underpinning of the various stages of the marriage ritual so that these images can be seen as trigger mechanisms for memories of the event. The study firstly engages with the Christian wedding as a ritual. Following Turner’s (Deflem 1991:3) conceptualisation of the four phases of a ritual (breach, crisis, liminal space and reintegration) the dissertation divides the wedding into these four phases. It also argues that the post-wedding events (the reception) follow the same trajectory, and present Turner’s (1974) liminoid dynamics. Working from several transformation narratives that use this approach, critical descriptive words that capture the narrative, the emotion and the atmosphere of the transformation are collected and clustered into categories. Following this, a tentative shooting schedule is proposed for each cluster/category. A method for the analysis of the photographs emerging from the testing of each cluster’s shooting schedule is determined, using Barrett’s subdivisions (Barrett 2006:65). The framework, composed of clusters, shooting schedule and analytical frame, is then tested on random appropriate photographs. The main body of work then applies the framework to 7 Christian weddings, and examples from each ritual phase are described and analysed to determine whether the photographs can be seen to capture the narrative events, the emotions and the atmosphere of each phase. The study argues that this is an effective alternative approach to Christian wedding photography practice. The study set out to develop an understanding of ritual and its various phases filled with emotion, atmosphere and life-changing practices. The wedding ritual identified followed a similar, if not the same path, of action of a life changing event and could be linked to the ritual and its four phases as per Turner’s discoveries and methodologies. Through literature of peoples’ life-changing experiences a databank of words describing the various phases of the ritual by means of emotion, atmosphere and meaning were identified and put into clusters of similar characteristics. These clusters, totalling seven, are representative of the four phases in the ritual that were used as a brief for the researcher/photographer. Barrett’s picture categories allowed one to decipher and develop a shooting schedule using these clusters with collective themes as briefs. The shooting schedule, which was speculative in design, was a method to illustrate the descriptor visually. Barrett’s methods supported the analysis and assessment of visuals captured in the field of the study of the Christian wedding. The visuals could be linked to descriptors and clusters which, in turn, could be linked to various phases in the ritual. The shooting schedule tested developed a visual capture framework (ritualised approach) which displayed images with a complete narrative filled with emotion and meaning, of the ritual in all four phases of the Christian wedding.

This thesis is aiming to reveal different characters of wedding photographic market in Sweden, China and Pakistan and give an overview, including history and trends on the three distinctive markets. Through the comprehensive comparison, an entire business plan is presented to enter into the Swedish market by mixing with unique Asian visual characters. / Program: Magisterutbildning i fashion management med inriktning modemarknadsföring

現今服務業的在產業的比重已經越來越高，而服務業生產與消費不可分割的特性導致了顧客參與成為服務流程中不可避免的一件事情。Bitner, Faranda, Hubbert, and Zeithaml (1997)亦認為顧客在服務流程中扮演服務品質、價值與滿意度的貢獻者。本研究整合各學者對顧客參與服務流程的價值創造觀點，並加入顧客參與前因之探討，發展成一個整合的模型。透過對婚紗攝影顧客的問卷調查，得以驗證本研究模型之理論。 　　本研究結果證實了Chan, Yim, and Lam (2010)的觀點，發現顧客參與並無法直接對顧客滿意度產生影響，而是需要透過服務品質的提升與關係的建立，才能進一步提高顧客之滿意度。並發現產品客製化、顧客控制以及經驗價值對於顧客滿意度的提升則不顯著，顯示即使是對顧客有利的價值創造，亦不見得能轉換為顧客滿意度。最後，本研究在顧客參與前因的部分，發現顧客知覺支持不僅對於顧客參與有增強的作用，並且會直接影響到顧客滿意度。顧客自我效能感對於顧客參與也有好的預測效果。顧客角色明確在理論中對於顧客參與有正面之影響，在本研究中的效果卻不顯著。 　　本研究根據研究結果對高顧客參與類型的服務廠商提出以下幾點建議。首先，企業應將顧客視為服務品質、價值與滿意度的貢獻者。第二，服務廠商在資源分配上，應著重資源於服務品質的提升以及與顧客建立關係上。第三，服務廠商在服務生產開始之前能夠提供越完整的資訊越好，適時地在顧客參與過程中給予激勵，並且展現對顧客的重視，都有助於顧客參與程度的提升。最後，服務人員在服務流程中扮演重要的角色，服務廠商在人才的培育上應不遺餘力。 / The proportion of the service sector in the industry today has become increasingly high. And because the production and consumption of many services are inseparable, customer participation in the service process is an inevitable issue. Bitner, Faranda, Hubbert, and Zeithaml (1997) also consider that customers play roles in the service delivery system as contributors to their own satisfaction and the quality and value which they receive. This study integrates views of the value creation of customer participation in the service process from past researches. Using data collected from customers who bought wedding photography services, this study examines how customer participation drives customer satisfaction through customer values; moreover, this study examines the antecedents of customer participation. 　　The result shows that customer participation does not cause customer satisfaction directly, but rather through the upgrading of service quality and relationship building, which supports the view of Chan, Yim, and Lam (2010). The study also finds that product customization, customer control, and experience value do not have significant help for increasing customer satisfaction. At the part of antecedents of customer participation, the study shows: (1) perceived support for customers not only enhances the level of customer participation, and has a direct impact on customer satisfaction; (2) customer self-efficacy is a good predictor of customer participation behavior. The effect of customer role clarity for customer participation is not significant in this study, but we should still consider the effect to be positive due to past researches. 　　The findings have several implications for firms that need high level of customer participation. First, companies should not see customers only as productive resources, but as contributors to service quality, customer value and customer satisfaction. Second, service firms should allocate resources to focus on enhancing service quality and building relationships with customers. Third, the service firms should provide as complete information as possible before the service production starts, encourage customers during the service process, and let the customer feel valued, in order to increase the degree of customer participation. Finally, the service personnel play an important role in the process of service delivery, so that service firms should spare no effort to nurture service talents.