Images that Persuade - John Berger Ways of Seeing
Ways of Seeing is a 1972 4 part television series created by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb. It was originally broadcast on BBC Two and adapted into a book of the same name.
Episode 1
This episode starts with John stating that the aim of this series is to "question some of the assumptions usually made about the tradition of European painting. That tradition which was born about 1400, died about 1900" whilst a shot of someone cutting out a face from an oil painting is shown. He then states that "it isn't so much the paintings themselves that I want to consider, as the way we now see them".
This episode talks about how the invention of the camera has changed how we perceive art, with a focus on traditional oil paintings. He talks a lot about how these paintings were once only able to be seen in one particular place but can now be seen in many different places, in many different ways, due to reprinting copies of them. The originals of these paintings are still considered special, sold for millions and displayed in special places such as the National Gallery but there is often disputes about which one is the true original. John then talks about how cropping in to a certain part of a painting or image can completely change the meaning of it, away from what the original meaning would have been.
I think the ideas John explores in this episode are really interesting and have become even more apparent now that most media is entirely digital. In the context of photography, an original digital image is almost impossible to differentiate from a copy of it and there may be no original physical copy of it. We are now exposed to so much media that true photography is, for many people, indistinguishable from a photo quickly taken on a phone - which has completely reshaped photography to suit these forms of media.
Episode 2
This episodes opens with John stating that "men dream of women, women dream of themselves being dreamt of. Men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at".
This episode explores the portrayal of the female nude in traditional oil paintings and whether or not they celebrate women as they really are or only as men would like them to be. John defines nude as "to be seen naked by others and yet not recognised for oneself". John talks about how the way women were painted was done in a way to put emphasis on the person viewing the painting, by the way they are looking or the way they are laying and the woman is usually represented in a very passive way. There is a clip of John talking to women at the time about the paintings he showed in the film. They all agree how these paintings are very exaggerated but that they have shaped how men think of women and how women think of themselves.
I think that the issue of the portrayal of women, whether nude or not, has been amplified by the use of photoshop in modern imagery. Woman constantly compare themselves to models seen in advertisements and other forms of media despite these not being a true representation of these women as they have been manipulated in post production, resulting in a exaggeration similar to what was seen in the traditional paintings of women. This leads to women seeing themselves in a negative light as they believe they should look the same as the women in media, which is impossible. This can also be an issue for men but is less common as women are much more sexualised in media than men.
Episode 3
This episode opens with John saying "we look, we buy, it is ours. Ours to consume, to sell, perhaps to give away. More often, ours to keep". He then says "we look, we buy and collect valuable objects. But the most valuable object of all has become the oil painting".
This episode explores how, after the invention of the oil painting, a painting became the ideal way to celebrate private possessions and the value we place on that tradition. John talks about how when wealthy people were having painting done of them and their possessions they would cover the whole room in items that show their wealth and how before the invention of oil painting, medieval European painters often used gold leaf in their pictures. It is the wealthiest people from these times that are now remembered from the portraits that were painted of them as the poor could not afford such portraits.
I think the desire to display wealth with imagery can be widely seen in social media these days. It is common to share photos of valuable possessions which displays wealth in a similar way to traditional oil paintings. I also think the displaying of valuable possessions has been twisted in order to advertise them and create a desire for people to own them.
Episode 4
This episode opens with John saying "In our urban world, in the streets where we walk, in the buses we take, in the magazines we read, on walls, on screens, we are surrounded by images if an alternative way of life".
This episode analyses the images of advertising and publicity and how they relate to the tradition of oil painting. John says "the state of being envied is what constitutes glamour, and publicity is the process of manufacturing glamour". He relates the models in photographs to the goddesses depicted in oil paintings but that glamour is a concept that was created in modern society and didn't exist in the times of these oil paintings as there was no social envy at the time. I think this comparison between oil paintings and photos is really interesting. This is a comparison I've never made myself but the examples given in this programme clearly show direct links between them. I think colour photography having started out by mimicking oil paintings has shaped the fundamentals of photography that we still use today.
John also highlights how publicity plays on our anxiety of money and makes us feel that without it we are nothing or unwanted. He also gives an example of 3 dreams. 1.) The dream of later tonight - in which we dream of being in the ideal world of the publicity we see and the one who brings the the most the pleasure in that world. 2.) The skin dream - in which we dream of having the perfect skin represented in publicity. 3.) The dream of a far away place - in which we dream of being in the beautiful places shown in publicity. Another interesting quote from this episode is "the things which publicity sells are in themselves neutral, just objects and so they have o be made glamorous by being inserted into contexts which are exotic enough to be arresting but not close enough to us to offer a threat".
John then looks at the juxtaposition in magazines between real life articles, the examples of refugees in need is given here, and advertisements. He comments on how these two things are created within the same society and printed in the same place but they seem worlds apart. People seeing these articles are seeing "strangers whose fate is meant to be different from ours" but "what happens in the dream (created by publicity) is meant to happen to us" therefore "there is no communication between the two worlds".
Finally, John highlights the contrast between the dreams represents in publicity images we see everywhere today and the reality of whats around them. "Oil paintings were surrounded by gold frames which symbolised the wealth of he owner within the picture and around it. What surrounds the publicity image is us, as we are". "Behind the paper are hidden our needs".
