Ways of Seeing

The 1972 BBC television documentary, Ways of Seeing, by John Berger was probably one of the earlier attempts to lift our understanding of art beyond its art-historical and aesthetic value. Although visual religion is hardly touched upon in the series, important issues in the study of visual culture are raised. Throughout the documentary, the focus is on the spectator’s ever changing perception of images.

The four program series explains how the meaning of an artwork changes with its context, in particular according to how the artwork is displayed. The same painting can be understood quite differently when it is on a museum wall, in a church or in a book, and its interpretation changes with the gender, age, education and culture of the spectator. Modern reproductions of artworks as postcards or as television images are seen as examples of how the meaning and function of art develop with its media. Here Berger is influenced by the essay "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit" ("The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction") by Walter Benjamin in 1935. Other examples are how an accompanying text, i.e. an art historical descriptions or a commercial text, alter our perception of what is displayed. The textual, architectural, ritual, musical and social setting of an artwork determines how we grasp the message of the image.

Episode two and three in the program focus on oil-paintings and the female nude in particular; the materialization of female form in the images. It is argued that the paintings of nudes had a similar function as photos of female models in modern magazines and commercials. The images are created for the male spectator, but also become the form in which women reflect their own bodily-images. The program also focuses on the presentation of material wealth displayed in the images, arguing that the main purpose of oil-paintings was to display and enhance the owner’s social status.

Episode four talk about commercials. Berger argues here that the commercial photograph has taken the place of the oil painting. Both painting and photograph display material wealth, but where oil-paintings display the owner’s possessions and achieved wealth and status, the commercial photograph show us the possessions and status yet to be achieved.

Ways of seeing Episode 1: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Ways of seeing Episode 2: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Ways of seeing Episode 3: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Ways of seeing Episode 4: part 1, part 2, part 3.