We can now isolate certain segments of a painting by zooming in on it, leaving it with an entirely different interpretation form the original. Everything around a painting, for example, used to ‘confirm and consolidate its meanings.’ But now, with the movement of film camera’s zooming in and out, and sounds around us, the real meaning provided to that painting/image has become interpreted differently. I followed Episode 1-4 using YouTube as it was easier to get a hold of.Įpisode 1 speaks of how Cameras have caused an original work of art to become transmittable-they have caused change. The book goes on mainly about Oil painting but the principal behind it can be used in photographic realm. It focus’ on how we vision the world around us. It is a book based on the relationship between Art History and the Media.
#John berger ways of seeing part 1 series#
A few masters like Rembrandt could break away from this system by creating deeper meaning in their work than just showing off material possessions.Ways of seeing was based on a BBC television series which was published in 1972. Within this period, most paintings were commissioned for wealthy people who wanted to glorify their wealth and power through art. The essay focuses on the European tradition of oil painting, which lasted from 1500 to 1900. Rather than making a point about oil painting or photography, they appear to be saying something about wealth and excess.Ĭhapter 5 expands on Chapter 4 by explaining how oil paintings function in a market economy. Unlike Chapter 3, where all the images were related by their common subject matter, the images in Chapter 4 don’t seem to be related in content. It’s hypocritical that we presume males have subjectivity when denying females any individual agency at all in society.Ĭhapter 4 is another image-only essay. Although there are more images now than ever before, some aspects of this representation still remain today: depicting women as passive objects for male pleasure while men enjoy diverse representations across media formats such as television and movies. Rather, their nudity was meant to please men who owned these paintings. Women were typically depicted nude because it was thought to be vain or because beauty tools like mirrors were associated with them, but they weren’t usually behind the scenes making those decisions. The nudity isn’t for a reason rather it’s just to please the (presumably) male spectators who own these paintings. He simplifies this by writing that “men act while women appear.” This is especially noticeable in European oil paintings, which often depict nude female figures. Berger begins by observing that men are represented as active, whereas women are mostly concerned with self-presentation. Berger does not explicitly connect these images rather he leaves their relationship open-ended.Ĭhapter 3 explains the relationship between images of women and how they’re represented. The theme of women appears in a variety of settings throughout history: there are photos from contemporary workplaces, oil paintings showing nude women, and advertisements for products sold by women. Text appears only occasionally to attribute paintings and photographs, and not every image is attributed. In the second essay, all of the images are related. Throughout the first essay in the book Berger draws heavily on work by Walter Benjamin to explain how reproduction changes what images mean by circulating them in new ways and alongside new ideas breaking down rarified narratives handed down from elite which often seek stabilize our understanding meanings From this premise Berger explains how images have layers deeper meaning beyond what they show on the surface they can offer a valuable document of how their creator saw the world but their underlying politics can also be obscured or mystified in order to uphold powers that be. Another way of phrasing this: all images are encoded with ideology regardless if their creators consciously want them to be. This term is used to describe paintings, photographs, films or any other representation that humans can construct and it’s assumed that every image externalizes its creator’s way of seeing. One way to recreate our way of perceiving the world is through images. John Berger opens his seminal text Ways of Seeing with an observation that seems counterintuitive, considering its status as a written text: that, as we inhabit the world, we constantly perceive it, only later naming the things we see. 1-Page Summary of Ways Of Seeing Overview
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