John Berger - Ways of Seeing

Essay One

The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.

We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice. As a result of this act, what we see is brought within our reach - though not necessarily within arm's reach. We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.

Soon after we can see, we are aware that we can also be seen. The eye of the other combines with our own eye to make it fully credible that we are part of the visible world. The reciprocal nature of vision is more fundamental that that of spoken dialogue.

An image is a sight which has been recreated or reproduced. It's an appearance, or a set of appearances, which has been detached from the place and time in which it first made its appearance and preserved. Every image embodies a way of seeing. The photographers way of seeing is reflected in his choice of subject. Yet, although every image embodies a way of seeing, our perception or appreciation of an image depends also upon our own way of seeing.

Through an increased awareness of history and consciousness of individuality the vision of the image maker became part of the record. An image became a record of how X had seen Y. Not to deny the imaginative quality of art: the more imaginative the work, the more profoundly it allows us to share the artist's experience of the visible.

When an image is presented as a work of art, the way people look at it is affected by a whole series of learnt assumptions about art. Assumptions concerning: Beauty, Truth, Genius, Civilization, Form, Status, Taste etc