John Berger

John Berger's Ways of Seeing changed the way people think about painting and art criticism. This watershed work shows, through word and image, how what we see is always influenced by a whole hose of assumptions concerning that nature of beauty, truth, civilization, form, taste, class and gender. Exploring the layers of meaning within oil paintings, photographs and graphic art, Berger argues that when we see, we are not just looking - we are reading the language of images.

Ways of Seeing

Examines the social implications and psychological impact of the images and conventions of modern and classical artists

anaïs-fiona

Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly and object of vision: a sight.

personal library, bought from greenlight bookstore fort greene

Patricia K

"a woman can scarcely cry at her father's funeral without picturing herself cry" thanks mister burger 👍🏼

pranya

I don’t want to be drastic, but this book changed my life. It is not everything, but it’s a mandatory step to ignite the curiosity to understand more of what’s everything. 

Ines Camacho Rodrigues Dias Ferreira

Qonita

I especially like the 7th chapter. Very provocative. Some of the passages that intrigued me:

"Publicity persuades us of such a transformation by showing us people who have apparently been transformed and are, as a result, enviable. The state of being envied is what constitutes glamour"

and

"He lives in the contradiction between what he is and what he would like to be. Either he then becomes fully conscious of the contradiction and its causes, and so joins the political struggle for a full democracy which entails, amongst other things, the overthrow of capitalism; or else he lives, continually subject to an envy which, compounded with his sense of powerlessness, dissolves into recurrent day-dreams."

Actually, the whole essay was hella daring and transgressing. It brought up things some of us might not be ready to discuss about (maybe me hence my surprise).
I'm currently evaluating my consumptive habit and looking to live mindfully. I'm glad that i stumbled upon this essay at such time. It might be quite extreme, almost publicityphobic for lack of a better word but it's an important perspective worth mulling over. The book actually ends with "to be continued by the reader" and damn right we will. It really doesn't end, it calls for discussions about self image, consumerism, perhaps the merit of publicity, capitalism etc. Also, i'd love to listen to what publicity proponents have to say about this.
Anyway, this essay's a rereading material and i'd give a 4. As for the rest, some didn't sit well with me, some just didn't enthuse me as much. 3.2 overall

tropa q tong si john nung college pa sa viscomm klase namen

jack

nothing revelatory here personally, but that is likely because i am reading it so relatively late in the game. if i had read this in high school it probably would be the greatest thing ever to me. does a wonderful job of condensing a lot of ideas circulating in critical theory into very accessible and compelling arguments. really a joy to read. impossible to overstate how good this is–sure you could just read benjamin instead, but where's the instant gratification in that?

for someone with absolutely no knowledge of art this gave very interesting and thought provoking insight. 

Anna

Nelson Zagalo

This is a famous book on the arts, popularly praised since the 1970's. However its reading doesn't sustain the same value against the passage of time. During the past century, a lot of the art, and film, criticism tried the route of Marxism, influenced by the writings of Walter Benjamin and Louis Althusser, among others.
John Berger book maintains the properties of an eye opener, able to change the way you see after reading it, whenever your contact with art criticism is recent. Thus as an introduction to the reading of the value of pictures in society, not only art, it can seduce and enlarge the interest in arts for the beginners in the subject.
As a legacy, we should not forget the book was made after a television series. Because of that the capitalist approach, or way of seeing, of Renaissance art and Advertising is superficial and only reveals a first layer of the entire complexity behind each subject.

Lily

Ways of Seeing peels off the layers of difference between "seeing" and "looking" as it pertains to our perception of visual works of art. While looking is a natural phenomenon that happens through the interactions of our retinas with the outside world, seeing assumes an understanding, a context, a subject. Seeing, is an art in itself.

Berger might just be one of the first people who situates "seeing" in this complicated setting for a wide audience. In the seven chapters of this book, Berger uncovers the social and political context of art as it has evolved through the last couple of centuries, drawing fascinating conclusions regarding the monetary value of art, its relation to our dreams, desires, bodies and class. I suspect some parts of this book, depending on the chapter and corresponding essays, are not particularly revolutionary to readers who are already familiar with said essays. For example, anyone who has read the renowned The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Bejamin, will not find the corresponding chapter in Ways of Seeing striking. But for others, Berger provides a thought-provoking and sensitive route.

This is a wonderful book. The prose is both uncomplicated and compelling, beckoning the reader to keep reading. Berger has a gentle but keen style of writing and a sincere passion for art that radiates in-between the lines. There is a kindness, a caring, in his sensibility that I felt again and again as I read through, and yet, I can't fully describe what I mean by this. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested to understand what it means to "see" art, and I also recommend that you take advantage of the wonderful (perhaps also melancholic; read the book to understand what I mean by this) digital accessibility of the mentioned paintings and photographs to view them in a better quality while Berger discusses them.

Tegan Anderson

I’m going to start off by saying that I’ve only read select chapters from this book (1, 3, 7, and a skim through the rest). I was recommended it by my Photography teacher as university interview preparation so it’s not the kind of book I would usually pick up.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this book (well, the parts I read of this book). Part of this is down to Berger’s style: it seems to make a point and then not explore or develop it in a way that is satisfying or interesting. Reading this book is a lot of digging through pretentiousness to find the good parts.

The ideas in the first chapter are the most interesting and the most well-argued of them all. I thought he had the beginnings of a point with the nudes and women being objectified. This is almost a foundation of all art and it isn’t shocking to learn that these images are mostly for the pleasure of men. But it is shocking that Berger spends a chapter preaching about the issues of nudes then includes a lot of them throughout the book, not just in the chapters discussing nudes, although they aren’t always central to what he’s discussing.

Honestly, I think this book is aimed at people who either already agree with all of Berger’s ideas, or people who are willing to discover and accept all of Berger’s ideas. Maybe I’m just not good at interpreting his way of seeing.

Frederik Van den Bril

Short but an absolute must-read. I will never look the same way at oil paintings, classic nudes, mythological renaissance or commercial advertisements again. "To be continued" by the reader it says at the end of the book. It really feels like it because this book changed the way I look at art or commercials forever. I'm trying to do this book justice by writing a longer review but my writing is inadequate anyway to do this grandiose book justice. Just read it!

Ashten Scheller

An absolute classic--a necessary read for all art history students, but more so for those who are not deeply ingrained in the field itself. Berger popularized and democratized his content, opening wider discussions about social context and the "social history" of art throughout several time periods and larger themes.

Nadia

Between 3 and 4 stars. 

Quite interesting, a lot of relevant things I think. I don’t know much about art at all, literally at all so I am taking this as pretty much an authority. Some of the writing was a bit confusing to me, but I think that could be cleared up by reading it again which I would like to do some time anyway. 

There was a lot of interesting things said but sometimes I feel like it could have gone a little further? But obviously this book is very short so you can’t expect everything. Also, I know everyone has mentioned it, but it’s written in bold which is ugly to read and strange in an Art book, and also it’s in black and white so the picture essays aren’t great. It’s a shame, I have looked and I can’t find a copy in colour.

I’d like to also add that I enjoyed this enough that I will most likely re read this book at some point (when I don’t have over one hundred books to read at home) and I would also like to read some of Berger’s other works. I feel like my views align with his, but in a less artfully informed way!

Erifili G

I'm somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars for this. 

Ways of Seeing by John Berger is a book about art and art criticism. It's made of seven essays, each treating different topics related to perception and image through art, where Berger explores the various layers of the visual world that is such a great and unavoidable part of our daily lives. He does that by using images and words, without dragging and staying on the same idea for too long, which makes the book really fast and easy to read. 

What I liked about Ways of Seeing was some specific essays, and how Berger treated some of the topics. He has a remarkable way of analysing complex subjects that go centuries back in very few words, which was impressive and very welcomed. An essay where I found myself agreeing with every word was essay 3, where Berger talks about the depiction of women in European art through the centuries, and more specifically the depiction of nude women. It was a mix of art, psychology and philosophy, more so than the other essays, and it showed the striking but absolutely not surprising or new chasm between the image of men and women in society, and so, inevitably, in art.

What I didn't like about Ways of Seeing was, well, also some specific essays. There were some essays, such as the last one, that made me skim or sleep or fall asleep while skimming. Because of the way this book is formed, I know I would be asking for too much if I expected to like all of the seven subjects treated. The last essay, for example, was all about publicity, which could have been interesting -and I'm sure it was for some people-, if it didn't analyse such superficial concepts. I didn't feel like it was teaching me anything, because yes, we all know that images in publicity are meant to pass messages like "if you buy this you become desirable, if you can't buy it you're not desirable". 

In other words, I know this book is always recommended to people who are into art, and since it's short and easy to read you don't have anything to lose by reading it; I'd mostly recommend it to people who are into visual studies in general, though, as they might benefit more from reading it.

Ways of Seeing

Reviews

Highlights