It was broadcast on BBC Two in January 1972 and adapted into a book of the same name.
#John berger ways of seeing essay series
In the distance to the right, a grove of trees is visible, beyond which a series of small hills dot the entire landscape till the horizon.Ways of Seeing is a 1972 television series of 30-minute films created chiefly by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb. A tree depicted on the left side of the painting tends to figure prominently and rises towards the painting’s top.
#John berger ways of seeing essay full
As such, Starry Night depicts a night full of stars with a partial moon depicted in the sky over some medieval town in Europe. This text will explore the application of Berger’s ideas to a piece by Vincent Van Gogh titled Starry Night. because it corresponds to our own observations of people.we still live in a society of comparable social relations and moral value” Berger’s ideas are fully applicable not just to paintings but to other forms of art as well because human perception is relative. Berger states that this is actually mystification but we could have an understanding of these personalities (Berger 14): “. However, these ideas of personal understanding of the artist’s personality may not always be true. ” He further argues that viewers could expect to understand the personality of the artist through his works because people evaluate these perceptions through their own vision. because a privileged minority is striving to invent a history which can retrospectively justify the role of the ruling classes. According to Berger, this is a deliberate move (Berger 11): “. The ensuing mystification between the viewer and the image tends to remove the real historical perspectives attached to that particular piece of art. When images from the past are “presented as works of art” the actual meaning behind them is “obscured” by personal assumptions such as truth, form, beauty etc. The image became a symbolic representation of an artist’s vision with which the artist could choose to document his personal experiences. As time wore on, increasing human intellect associated new functions to images. The reason for the origination of images as per Berger was merely to “represent something that was not there”. Yet when people generally view an image, they consider it from their perspectives only. However, the contention in creating an image is to enable people to see things from the perspective of the creator. ” Berger argues that the “detachment” varies from one image to the other including photographs. which has been detached from the place and time in which it first made its appearance. As Berger puts it (Berger 9): “An image is a sight which has been recreated or reproduced. In order to substantiate his claim, Berger relates to fire that is seen differently today when compared to the Middle Ages when people believed in the “physical reality of hell”.Īn image is a unique method to preserve something so that people can view it later and “see” it with their own vision. This relationship between seeing and believing tends to create a dynamic relationship where our past experience or knowledge heavily influences the way we see things and perceive them. The use of words to explain things around us tends to influence how we see things in the first place. As Berger develops his ideas, he states that our prior knowledge or perception of things tends to affect the way in which we see those things.
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