The television programme is divided into four sections and although the book is divided into seven chapters (three being made up solely of images), the book also covers four areas. A further advantage this book has is that many students have not had the opportunity to study photography, but have studied art, and so the book presents a logical progression for them when they start to study photography. These two points make it relatively easy to understand. For the student new to critical theory, it has the advantage of being produced for a mass audience, and has as a central aim the de-mystification of art. For the photographer, the book has the advantage of putting photography in the context of western art. Although the book and programme make the same case, they do so in slightly different ways, and the programme is well worth watching.
Published in 1972 and based on a BBC television programme of the same name, this is a very influential text on art criticism. In "Ways of Seeing" Berger claims that the representations of men and women in visual culture entice different "gazes", different ways in which they are looked at, with men having the legitimization of examining women, and women ��� also examine women. John Berger - "Ways of Seeing" - summary and revienow classic article "Ways of Seeing" (1972) revolutionarily, for his time, analyses the manner in which men and women are culturally represented, and the subsequent results these representations have on their conduct and self as well and mutual perception. His influence will be felt for decades to come. He believed that the enjoyment and appreciation of art should not be saved for a privileged, pretentious few who thought their perceptions and tastes to be the standard. This was no doubt governed by his notably Marxist outlook on life. , Berger popularised the attitude that art should be for all. Berger sums up the inherent hypocrisy in images of women created for the patriarchal male gaze:
Berger argues that the systemic objectification of women in visual art has continued from the oil paintings of centuries past, into the films and advertisements of recent times. It�۪s his writing in the depiction of women in art that is most enduring. The modern interrogation of centuries-old oil paintings was a milestone in cultural theory.
#JOHN BERGER WAYS OF SEEING GOOD LIFE TV#
His book Ways of Seeing, of the same title as the TV docu-series is a ubiquitous reading list choice for many third level students of arts and humanities. The 90-year-old artist, critic and writer, who passed away on January 2nd in Paris, leaves behind a rich and noble legacy of compassion learning - and a disdain for exclusive cultural gatekeeping.He argued that the way a work of art was perceived differed depending on the person who was perceiving it, and that your own ideology and background guided your absorption of cultural artefacts.
John Berger was a man who forged a path to help dismantle the notion of art being something for an elite few. John Berger (5 November 1926 ��� 2 January 2017)
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