Contemporary DIY Photography in a Historical Context

The thesis primarily aims to analyze the situation of DIY culture on the specific case of contemporary DIY photography through a research focused on photography students and alumni at Czech photography programmes. The research consists of fifteen in-depth interviews conducted with the students or alumni providing qualitative data that is analyzed quantitatively using the interviewees' coded answers. The secondary aim is to provide a theoretical background to the topic of DIY photography, exploring the connection between photography and DIY (Do It Yourself) in its historical context, as well as its current standing, as well as to introduce the photography medium's evolution briefly, focusing on the methods that were discovered, or applied, with a certain level of amateurism or through contribution from another field. Later, it explores the concept of DIY in different forms, subcultures, and contexts to draw a conclusion of how photography and DIY relate. The thesis' findings are centred around the struggle photographers feel when it comes to DIY in digital technologies, mainly due to limits in their skills in hands-on processes compared to analogue photography and the overall level of satisfaction with the available technology