The Analysis Of John Berger’s Ways Of Seeing
I went to Cineplex movie theatre to watch John Berger’s ways of seeing. I arrived at the theatre half past noon and the people who were mostly attending the theatre were young kids, adults and couples. The theatre was not that full and I was able to choose a seat, three rows from the last bench. The show began and I was very interested as the show was mainly focused on art, photography and architecture. The film was written by John Berger in 1972 and it was produced by Mike Dibb. The episodes of the series are thirty minutes long. In ways of seeing, Berger provides an analysis of how our culture influences the way we portray art in the general media which is characterized by subliminal themes such as female objectification and male dominance.
The main story told by the art found in John Berger’s ways of seeing, is that of our cultural relationship in portraying various themes in advertising and art. Berger shows that society tends to use women as objects of desire and the images shown in advertisements and marketing campaigns bring to question the moral fabric that hold together the foundation of our culture. The art is mostly about marketing and the story being told is a way of convincing the consumer to buy or purchase something he or she does not have by highlighting what the consumer lacks. Product publicity, as John Berger’s ways of seeing, demonstrates is not about what a consumer does not have but it’s main aim is to create desire for a particular product or lifestyle. For instance, the painting of a landowner surveying his estate is not meant to show what the consumer lacks, but is intended to create desire for that product and all it seems to offer.
Berger’s ways of seeing deconstructs how marketing images work and the manipulation of advertising as people perceive the world around them through what they see or hear. Thus, the depiction of certain images or painting has a profound impact on the emotional health of its viewers. For instance, the case of the spectator-buyer is meant to create a sense of lacing and inadequacy in the mind of the buyer by making her believe that the product will transform her into someone else who will be an object of envy for others. John Berger argues that this form of envy will justify the buyer loving herself more because she has something that no one else does but one could see that the publicity image steals her love for herself before buying the product and offers it back to her for the price of the product.
The main genre of John Berger’s ways of seeing is art, architecture, and photography. The series consists of four episodes and the first episode talks about how the reproduction of images and paintings may change their original meaning. Berger draw from Walter Benjamin’s work to show how reproducing brings about new contexts by changing the way the images are circulated and the ideas behind the images. This reproduction often breaks down the narratives passed down from generation to generation as the elite seek to destabilize the public’s understanding of the meanings of the art. Episode two discusses the female nude and John Berger asserts that most paintings of women depict her as a subject of male desire or idealization. Women appear in paintings and images across a diverse range but Berger does not explicitly make a connection between their images thereby leaving their relationship open-ended.
The third episode is how oil paint is used as a means of reflecting the socioeconomic status of the individuals who commissioned the making of the art. In this episode, Berger shows how in both art and society, men and women are depicted differently with men being represented as agents of change while women are shown as being obsessed with how they look. Berger once famously wrote that, “men act while women appear.” This relationship, as Berger points out, can be found in many European oil paintings which show female nude figures. Women are thus painted to exhibit their sexuality and as existing for the pleasure of men but men are represented as having diverse roles in society. The fourth episode is on advertising and publicity and Berger argues that color photography has taken over the role of oil paint though in a different context. Publicity images or advertisements, according to Berger, are meant to make the consumers envy the hypothetical versions of who they will become if they buy a certain product. Advertisements make the consumers feel that they have no choice but to buy the product because not to buy would be unthinkable.
John Berger’s ways of seeing show how the logic behind advertisement and publicity images is faulty as it glorifies material possessions and in so doing works in the same way as oil paintings which were a celebration of capital, private ownership of goods, land or wealth. The difference between oil painting and advertisements is that advertisements can be seen by everyone but oil paintings were only for the ruling class. Watching John Berger’s ways of seeing, made me feel enlightened as it was an eye opener into how the images and art around us affect how we think, perceive and judge everything and everyone in our society. Marx and Engels argued that the ruling class of any society are formed and controlled by the ruling class and it seems that Berger is I agreement with this assertion. Marx and Engels are of the view that the ruling class are able to shape the mindset of the society by producing or financing the production of materials such as images, paintings or films that will reinforce the position of the ruling class in society.
