Summary Of Ways Of Seeing By John Berger

In "What Meets the Eye," by Daniel Akst, the author argues that looks in fact do matter, and he evaluates the fact that we all know that looks matter, even more than we think. He mentions that we try to deny that looks do not matter, but on the inside, we do know that looks matter and according to him, looks are very important.

The ideas, beliefs and values we hold so strong to ourselves dictate the way we see art, literature and the world. The way we see history and

When in an art gallery that displays oil paintings from the Renaissance era, one might by mystified as to the true interpretation of such paintings. The majority of people today are unaware that they do not view oil paintings the way they were traditionally meant to be viewed. As we admire them, do we ever stop to analyze why they were painted in the first place, and for whom they were they painted for? By understanding why oil paintings depict certain things, consequently our view and interpretation of them will alter. Oil paintings were a luxury only the wealthy could partake in, seeking out artists that would be able paint their possessions in the most realistic way. Anthropologist Levi-Strauss comments “… rich Italian merchants looked upon painters as agents, who allowed them to confirm their possession of all that was beautiful and desirable in the world.” (qtd. in. Berger 86). It was the wealthy who ultimately instructed the artist what to paint, usually a possession they desired to be put on canvas. In John Berger’s book Ways of Seeing, he writes “Oil paintings often depict things. Things which in reality are buyable. To have a thing painted and put on a canvas is not

Children below age six perceive the world differently than we do. “The infant sees the world as populated by objects which come in and out of view, […] therefore, […] in and out of existence. Epistemically the infant’s world is utterly solipsistic” (Flanagan 144). When we think about it, this makes sense. A child doesn’t care about something unless it’s in his or her sight, since it’s all that the child knows to exist at that moment. Everything in the child’s universe is whatever he or she perceives it as in any given instant. For example, a child “will not search for a treasured rattle

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.

In chapter 8 Looking Out Looking in by Ronald. B. Adler it talks about why we form relationships , well most people desire relationships. Appearance is especially important in relationships whether it is in person or social media. Appearance is also the most important feature people look for, skills and intelligence are secondary. Being in a relationship causes partners to create positive illusions. In relationships we also look for similarity we like people who are similar to us. Similarity is more important to relational happiness than communication ability. Similarity also helps us overcome trivial differences. Complementarily differences are the differences a relationship has between each other. Complementarily differences strengthen relationships

Firstly, I’ll touch upon how education at a public university could affect a child’s relationship with god. After middle school or high school, one’s abilities to make assumptions and decisions for themselves start to rise; they learn about evolution and other religions in school, and they start to think for themselves and develop an identity. For a parent who raised a child under a religious household, this could cause

She discusses those who have recently acquired the ability to see and how this affects how they interpret the new world around them. With no preconceived knowledge or ideas about what they are seeing, “vision is pure sensation unencumbered by meaning” (24). While our minds use what we already know to interpret and comprehend what we see, those who see for the first time have no previous knowledge telling them what they are looking at. Their minds are blank canvases, interpreting each line, shape, and shadow, attempting to piece every aspect of what their eyes are seeing to understand the full picture. While we would simply glance at an object, allowing our mind to fill in the details of what we are seeing based on the image we already have in our minds, the newly sighted do not have the ability to see in concepts as we do. Most of us cannot “remember ever having seen without understanding” (27) yet we still have the ability to learn how to see like this to an extent. Artistic talent aside, upon asking a newly sighted person and an artistically untrained person who had been seeing their whole life to draw the same object, the newly sighted person would have the ability to draw what they were truly seeing while the average person would draw what they knew they were seeing, ignoring the true shape and shadows of the object in front of them. Upon asking someone who has been trained

6) A person may "see" not with the eyes, if they were to feel something deep within themselves that could not be attributed to any of the senses. Seeing in this case means to understand what the view means to the individual.

The act of looking is related to physical vision while the act of seeing involves an enhanced understanding of what it means to truly exist. In the short story “Cathedral”, the narrator is blind to appreciating the human experience until he meets a blind man who ironically becomes the one who teaches him how to see in a way he never knew how. The author Raymond Carver uses symbolism within this story to reinforce the theme of blindness, and the difference between looking and seeing.

People tend to views an image based on how society say it should be they tend to interpret the image on those assumption, but never their own assumptions. Susan Bordo and John Berger writes’ an argumentative essay in relation to how viewing images have an effect on the way we interpret images. Moreover, these arguments come into union to show what society plants into our minds acts itself out when viewing pictures. Both Susan Bordo and John Berger shows that based on assumptions this is what causes us to perceive an image in a certain way. Learning assumption plays into our everyday lives and both authors bring them into reality.

While in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I traveled through the different galleries

The society in which one lives provides a set number of interpretations of events, people, and items based on provided cultural models. We act in the ways we are expected and taught to act. We interpret alien events within our own cultural repertoire. Patterns and structures throughout time are re-applied and re-invented as signals, often removed from their original meaning. Every action, every event in the past is thus seen as a performance in “cultural theater”--a phrase introduced by Brian Levack in his historical analysis of possession.

I began to wonder, what are we as parents and religious leader doing to confirm or deny this way of thinking? How is it that our children have come to think about Christianity in this way?

John Berger in his essay the “Ways of Seeing” reveals the master of analyzing art which he calls “mystification, the process of explaining away what might otherwise be evident”. To me Berger is teaching his audience just the ability to see the great detail of art, being able to speak about the painting and the great lengths to describe the revolution of how seeing painting has evolved throughout the years. When it comes to art looking and seeing, it has interchangeable meaning to use to describe one perception of a painting. To look at a painting is to glance and notice a few details in the piece. On the other hand seeing a work of art in John Berger’s opinion is not just to observe it, but also to understand, go beyond the surface and connect the painter to the painting. Henry Ossawa Tanner, during the Civil War, painted a portrait called “The Thankful Poor” that reflect on his feeling during that time.