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 If it's outdated now, it's because it opened a new era September 16, 2008
'Ways of Seeing' is a book which some readers may find a bit puzzling. The ads reproduced in its pages look naive to us, in their unsophisticated emphasis on luxury and glamour, and Berger's commentary on advertising may seem a bit simple, but if so it's because he was one of the first and best critics to compare the effects and uses of advertising and fine art. The main difference between him and most contemporary commentators is that Berger had an independent perspective that they lack; his analysis has far more steel and indignation than the work of someone like Peter York, who comments on ads from the insider's perspective of "Is it effective or not?" Berger refuses to be seduced into talking about ads on their own terms. While the specific tactics used in advertising may be different now from what they were when this book was originally published, the basic strategy is still the same as it will ever be: to sell us not a product but a lifestyle.
Anyone who has travelled in a less-well-off country that has a functioning advertising industry (Greece, for instance) will have noticed that billboard ads there tend to be like early 70s ads in richer countries: they promote a dream of luxury, wealth and sophistication. Ads in the UK and Ireland are aimed at people who already think of themselves as reasonably wealthy and sophisticated, and so UK and Irish ads tend to promote an idea of the consumer as being rootsy, down-to-earth, unpretentious, sensible - all the things that we secretly fear we aren't. The tactic is different, but the strategy (to play on the consumer's hopes and fears about what kind of person they are) is the same.
Berger's work is hardly full of undigested chunks of Marxist doctrine, unlike the far more impenetrable and far less useful work of (e.g.) the Art & Language group. If you come across his work when you're young or ignorant enough, he is one of the most liberating writers around. He teaches you not to agree with him, but how to be critical in the first place; he provokes you into wondering if and how he could be right, which is a gift from a writer to a reader.
This is a relatively entry-level Berger. The early novels are not really very good, except for the first one, "A Painter of our Time". The Booker-winning "G" is a masterpiece, and the more recent fiction has been equally excellent but different in tone and method. The book-length non-fiction, such as "A Fortunate Man", "A Seventh Man", "Another Way of Telling", is all superb. He is one of the best English writers and as he passes 80, his work shows no sign of declining in quality or intensity.
It should be stated that this is only the accompanying book of a TV series which, shamefully, isn't available on DVD. "Ways of Seeing" the programme is still pretty mind-blowing, right from the cheeky opening sequence where Berger appears to cut up an actual Botticelli. The whole show is, or used to be, available in bits on YouTube. I would rather sit through a TV show by Berger than the whole of Kenneth Clark's contemporary and far more expensive "Civilisation", which has been released on DVD.
 Thought provoking... February 20, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I recently had to read this as the basis for an essay, but was pleasantly surprised. It is an interesting snippet questioning our view of art and if it has changed throughout history. I found a few of the assumptions a little irritating, such as that Reubens would not have been aware of the device of depicting the human body in an anatomically incorrect pose in order to give the impression of movement. (Particularly as this is something that was well known among artists for hundreds of years and had been used by Leonardo da Vinci for example).
However, if you are looking for a thought provoking, unusual look at how images have been used throughout history, give it a go. Its not a long book and some of the chapters are purely visual to allow the viewer to come to their own conclusions.
Essential reading for any kind of visual artist February 10, 2008
This compact, easy to read pictoral/text book is a great aid to understanding the semantics of visual conception. You may think some of it obvious, and some of it a bit cooky, for example its marxist angles on the reasons why we see things the way we have come to, but it does get the student of all things visual thinking hard about it all. Whilst not being a specific aid to any particular field, it is an essential general reader for anyone studying the visual arts, from graphic design to theatre design, and from architecture to photography, and it's why it is still a standard first year college issue on so many courses.
 Confounding seeing with perception. September 27, 2007
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
Berger's book is a typical leftist product of the period. He is so desperate to bring class war into the topic that he comes across as faintly absurd. For example - and there are many such - he talks of "..the esoteric approach of a few specialised experts who are the clerks of the nostalgia of a ruling class in decline." when criticising other art critics. I often found myself laughing aloud at such pompous absurdities.
When it comes to his "seeing comes before words" he shows he does not understand the difference between 'seeing' and 'perception' which he muddles turn and turn about. He suggests we drop our assumptions of form, status, taste when viewing an artwork as these are 'mystifications' and we should instead 'see' the art in unencumbered form, as it were. He proceeds to suggest we 'Study this evidence and judge for yourself'. But how could we apply thought to our 'seeing' and avoid it becoming a perception? For that is what he is asking us to do. How could we differentiate what we see without perception? All he does is to introduce his own view of how we should look at art and claim it is better than a different (capitalist?) way.
His views on the representation of women will fascinate archeologists of sociology. He appears oblivious of the fact that women have always been able to view images of men sexually.
 Some sound ideas, but out-of-date and prejudiced September 23, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
A short beginner's guide to the philosophy of art, John Berger's 1972 book "Ways Of Seeing" is often talked about as being a seminal piece of critical writing about art, but it lacks the relevance and profundity that it may have been credited with on its first publication 35 years ago.
The principles that Berger details about the viewer and the subject in imagery are simple but sound. All too often Berger is either stating the obvious or making rather questionable generalisations (for example "All publicity works on anxiety. The sum of everything is money, to get money is to overcome anxiety.")
It is, though other reviewers disagree, definitely dated. Image production and manipulation has developed too far, and become too international, in the last 35 years for "Ways Of Seeing" to even hope to be relevant. It is inherently bigoted, fixated by the English upper classes, and also for example gives some importance to the 'recent' arrival of colour photography as being an important influence on advertising.
Berger seems to particularly enjoy writing chapter 3 (one of the longest chapters), about nude women, which makes very few points about the form and seems like a cheap excuse to reproduce various images of undressed ladies...
A big drawback is that the typography of this book is awful. Considering that its subject matter is that of images, I am staggered that whoever arranged it decided it would be a good idea to put the entire text in BOLD type with expanded line spacing, which leaves limited room for the reproductions of the images, many of which are reproduced far too small and with poor print quality so that you can't make out the details that Berger is actually referring to.
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