Although the sociology of art has developed considerably in the last twenty years, visual sociology – intended here as the analysis of art images – remains underdeveloped. This dearth of visual studies in the sociology of art does not, however, imply that it is not possible to apply a sociological analysis to artistic works in the visual domain. In order to illustrate this point, this article presents a sociological study of the works of the Helsinki School of Photography. The context of this research is presented first, followed by a description of some of the salient characteristics of those artists who belong to the Helsinki School of Photography. Then, sociological objectivizing is mobilized through the process of analyzing the themes and other characteristics of the works. This case study demonstrates that certain themes and stylistic characteristics of works of art, in this case photography, can be identified in terms of artists’ relationship to a specific country or even more precisely here to a city. Thus, common cultural traits shared by artists are expressed through their work.
Keywords
- Art
- Cultural Traits
- Photography
- Sociology of Works
- Visual Sociology