John Berger's Ways of Seeing

In Ways of Seeing, John Berger provides a discussion of the changes wrought by the invention of the camera. Literally as well as figuratively, the "mechanical eye" forged a new way of seeing compared to painting, "The camera showed that the notion of time passing was inseparable from the experience of the visual. What you saw depended upon where you were when. What you saw was relative to your position in time and space" (Berger 18). Primarily, Berger argues that since the camera any object that is properly seen leads to an understanding of capitalist society.

Berger makes an argument that any art object we look at is perceived differently by different people in different times and space. This is especially true for different cultures in Berger's view, since he believes that social and political forces are responsible for shaping the values and ideology in artwork. Berger offers many examples to show a Marxist analysis of art, arguing that most artwork reveals the ideas and attitudes dominant a

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Category: Literature - J