  Multi-color light curves of V1197 Her were obtained with the 2.4 meter
optical telescope at Thai National Observatory and the Wilson-Devinney (W-D)
program is used to model the observational light curves. The photometric
solutions reveal that V1197 Her is a W-subtype shallow contact binary system
with a mass ratio of $q = 2.61 $ and fill-out factor to be $f = 15.7\,\%$. The
temperature difference between the primary star and secondary star is only
$140K$ in spite of the low degree of contact, which means that V1197 Her is not
only in geometrical contact configuration but also already under thermal
contact status. The orbital inclination of V1197 Her is as high as $i =
82.7^{\circ}$, and the primary star is completely eclipsed at the primary
minimum. The totally eclipsing characteristic implies that the determined
physical parameters are highly reliable. The masses, radii and luminosities of
the primary star (star 1) and secondary star (star 2) are estimated to be
$M_{1} = 0.30(1)M_\odot$, $M_{2} = 0.77(2)M_\odot$, $R_{1} = 0.54(1)R_\odot$,
$R_{2} = 0.83(1)R_\odot$, $L_{1} = 0.18(1)L_\odot$ and $L_{2} =
0.38(1)L_\odot$. The evolutionary status of the two component stars are drawn
in the H - R diagram, which shows that the less massive but hotter primary star
is more evolved than the secondary star. The period of V1197 Her is decreasing
continuously at a rate of $dP/dt=-2.58\times{10^{-7}}day\cdot year^{-1}$, which
can be explained by mass transfer from the more massive star to the less
massive one with a rate of $\frac{dM_{2}}{dt}=-
1.61\times{10^{-7}}M_\odot/year$. The light curves of V1197 Her is reported to
have the O'Connell effect. Thus, a cool spot is added to the massive star to
model the asymmetry on light curves.
