Looking and Seeing: "The Ways Of Seeing" by John Berger

The book starts off strong by saying, “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak.” It comprises seven essays that blend words and images, prompting us to reevaluate our understanding of how we look at and perceive the world. The author emphasises that looking and seeing are not the same; seeing is a biological response to stimuli, while looking involves a conscious choice to interpret and question what we perceive through emotion, logic, social context, and belief.

Assumptions and the Modern World 

Berger challenges the notion that our perspective on paintings is shaped by assumptions or preconceived ideas learned through traditional elite standards of beauty, genius, and truth. He argues that these outdated filters no longer apply in the modern world. Instead of connecting us to art, they create distance and confusion, benefiting the ruling class, which manipulates these narratives from the past.

Reproduction and Meaning 

 He moves forward, explaining how the invention of the camera changes everything, how the painting’s meaning changes every time it is reproduced, and how it is no longer limited to elite places. Now the painting’s context mattered more than its original meaning cause in each place, situation, the meaning of the painting changed depending on how one looked, where and by whom it was seen became important. So he encourages the readers to look critically and question the intent, ideology and values behind the images that are being shown because no image is innocent or neutral; they are always framed by culture, power, and motive. 

Context Matters 

To emphasise the importance of context, placement and composition on how we interpret visual information, John Berger places different images in different locations, contexts and shapes, forms and sequences to show us how the same image tells a different story in different places, by giving no meaning or paragraph to explain those images he forces us to question our beliefs and way we look, understand and interpret the image shown to us. He asks us to think about the image critically, not just by the image as a whole, but how it is cropped, what is placed alongside it, what surrounds it, and the setting it appears to be in. He encourages us to view the image differently by emphasising that interpretation is always contextual, not purely visual.

Men Act, Women Appear: The Gendered Lens of Art and the Power of the Gaze"

He moves deeper, explaining the European art where women are shown as objects and passive beings that are defined by “ what can and cannot be done to them” Berger distils this concept into the phrase, "men act – women appear."   Berger’s critical observations pertain to the representation of women, differentiating between “nakedness” and “nudity.” He argues that to be “naked” is simply a state of being, but “nude” implies being on display, subjected to an observer’s gaze. This distinction highlights the objectification of women in art; the “presence” of a man is that of an actor who asserts his power over women, who are presented as objects. By presence, Berger means how men are the authorities over women in these paintings. These explain the gender dynamics and how visual culture shapes the social representation of gender, where they reinforce the idea that a woman's value lies in her appearance, whereas a man’s lies on his achievements, so the male gaze dominates the frame, while the female figure is posed to please that gaze, reflecting broader social structures of patriarchy and control.

Wealth

Through the oil painting, Berger explains how they instil the feeling of envy, desire and ownership of the materialistic world. These paintings functioned as a visual system of power, wealth, and control, and defined our assumptions of what class, status and ownership meant, even in today’s world. These painting reinforce our idea how image in never neutral but the reflection or is deeply tied into the economic, political, and ideological frameworks.

From Canvas to Commercial

Berger explores the temporal and consumerist dimensions of publicity images in today's world by extending his analysis to modern advertising, linking historical oil paintings with contemporary commercial imagery. He argues that the purpose of both is to display and promote a certain way of life—one based on material wealth, possession, and status. While the oil painting expressed the ownership and wealth of an elite class, the contemporary visuals refuel the desire by showing or creating a manufactured desire that convinces viewers that they are incomplete or lacking, and that buying a product will bring them closer to an ideal life—full of beauty, success, confidence, and admiration. 

Conclusion 

Visual studies often ask: Who is creating the image? Who is it for? What is it trying to make the viewer feel or do? He is asking to critically look and find answers to these questions, and question our assumptions on how we look at an image that is presented to us. The book also encourages us to reconsider paintings, images, and advertisements from a fresh perspective, highlighting the significance of placement, context, and composition.

References

• https://theoxfordculturereview.com/2017/04/04/review-ways-of-seeing/
• https://explainingthebible.com/ways-of-seeing/ 
• https://somereading.blogspot.com/2012/11/berger-john-ways-of-seeing.html 
• https://www.ways-of-seeing.com/ch3
• https://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.com/2011/05/john-berger-ways-of-seeing-summary-and.html
• https://newbookrecommendation.com/summary-of-ways-of-seeing-by-john-berger-a-detailed-synopsis/
• https://chatgpt.com/