John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”: An Exercise in Demystifying Visual Power
It lays bare the language of museums, the technology of reproduction, advertising, and power, allowing the reader to practice a critical gaze on everyday images.
In 1972, the British critic John Berger created the eponymous BBC television series Ways of Seeing, which was subsequently adapted into this book. Using concise, sharp text juxtaposed with a wealth of images, it re-evaluates “how we are taught to see,” and has since become an essential primer for visual culture and photographic literacy. It is not an orthodox art-historical timeline, but rather an exercise in “demystification”: a practice of critical reading.
Core Concepts: Seeing, Power, and Advertising
Berger’s argument unfolds along four primary paths:
1. “Seeing” Precedes “Words”: Reproduction Changes an Image’s Meaning
We tend to assume that understanding comes from textual explanation, but Berger reminds us that seeing comes before words. Photography and printing strip an artwork from its original location and place it in a new context; a single image can acquire entirely different meanings depending on the page, caption, or layout. Therefore, to read an image is first to read its “context” and “position,” not just its “content.”
2. The Oil Painting Tradition = An Aesthetic of Ownership; The “Nude” = A Body to Be Seen
European oil painting long served wealth and ownership: landscapes, objects, and figures were arranged to consolidate the “owner’s” perspective. The “Nude” as a genre, in particular, almost always placed the woman in a position to be seen—she looks at the spectator to confirm she is being watched, her body organized as an object for judgment and exchange. This reveals how the gaze and power operate quietly within images.
3. Advertising is Modern Oil Painting: Turning Envy into Commercial Grammar
In mass society, advertising inherits the function of oil painting. It no longer celebrates what one already has, but manufactures the illusion of what one does not yet have. It uses glamour and posture to summon the promise: “If you buy this, you will become that better version of yourself.” Envy and glamour replace traditional sacredness, becoming the dominant melody of contemporary imagery.
4. Demystification: Reclaiming the Viewer’s Agency
“Authoritative interpretation” often shrouds art in professionalism and mystique. Through the juxtaposition of text and image, Berger demonstrates how to dismantle this jargon and authoritative narrative, returning to the verifiable elements of composition, selection, and display. He shows that everyone can learn to read images with their own eyes and experience, thereby reclaiming their own agency in seeing.
Value and Impact: As Toolkit and Public Language
The enduring value of Ways of Seeing can be understood on two levels:
- Value as Method and Tool: The book provides three immediately usable tools: (a) Contextual reading: analyzing how the same image transforms under different captions or in different venues; (b) Gaze/Power analysis: asking *who* is looking, *who* is being looked at, and *who* decides what is shown; (c) Everyday critical practice: applying the methods of the museum to newspapers, advertisements, and social media. This elevates “understanding” from mere appreciation to critical identification and judgment.
- Long-Term Impact: This book brought the complex of “gaze-representation-power” into the public sphere, laying the groundwork for subsequent visual culture studies, feminist image criticism, media literacy education, and curatorial practice. Alongside Sontag’s On Photography, it helped forge the public language for contemporary image critique: we do not just *look* at images; we are *shaped* by them. It remains a rapid boot-up sequence for understanding advertising, social media, and news imagery today.
Ways of Seeing teaches us to ask, in front of any image: Who has organized our eye?
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