Customer Reviews
Thought provoking... - By: Dark Clarissa, 20 Feb 2008 
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 & 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 anatomicallly 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 & 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 & some of the chapters are purely visual to alllow the viewer to come to their own conclusions.
Essential reading for any kind of visual artist - By: Lou Knee, 10 Feb 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, & 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 alll things visual thinking hard about it alll. 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, & from architecture to photography, & it's why it is still a standard first year college issue on so many courses.
Confounding seeing with perception. - By: Charles, 27 Sep 2007 
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 - & 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' & 'perception' which he muddles turn & turn about. He suggests we drop our assumptions of form, status, taste when viewing an artwork as these are 'mystifications' & we should instead 'see' the art in unencumbered form, as it were. He proceeds to suggest we 'Study this evidence & judge for yourself'. But how could we apply thought to our 'seeing' & 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 & 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 sexuallly.
Some sound ideas, but out-of-date and prejudiced - By: Mr. Stuart Bruce, 23 Sep 2007 
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 & profundity that it may have been credited with on its first publication 35 years ago.
The principles that Berger details about the viewer & 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 & manipulation has developed too far, & 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, & 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 & 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 smalll & with poor print quality so that you can't make out the details that Berger is actuallly referring to.
A must read...a mind changer... - By: Ndouglas, 20 Dec 2006 John et al's little book (it was a collective project, as John points out in the book), is a must read, some reviewers have described it as dated, they are wrong.
The world John describes, a world of Capitalism is still with us only now we are surrounded by even more ad imagery & commodification of life, a system that works even more on the principle of what you have you are, & that alll human satisfaction, emotion, happiness & attractiveness can be obtained through the purchase of commodities, so we alll live in the gap between what we are & what we could be, working in jobs where we lack any control over our labour whilst daydreaming of when we are not at work, 'the future deferred' as he says as choices of consumption dominating rather than political action necessary to make history now.
All we are left with is a 'culture' that reflects the wish to buy & nothing else...
BUY THIS BOOK!
