'Ways of Seeing' John Berger overview.

Ways of Seeing by John Berger overview.

“Perspective unique to European art; Perspective makes the eye the centre of the visible world but the human eye can only be in one place at one time.”

        John Berger, Way’s of seeing.

Since the invention of the camera, valuable images that only ever hung in one place at one time have been reproduced, as a result, we now see these paintings like no-one has ever seen them before. The invention of the camera not only changed what we see, but how we see it.

The camera has demonstrated its ability to zoom in and altar and image time and time again, which changes the original meaning of the original work. For example, Botticelli’s painting ‘Venus and Mars’ hung in one place, and the viewer had no choice but to take in the picture in its entirety. However a reproduction of this painting has famously consisted of Venus’s portrait only. Her face has simply become a representative of any other pretty girl that may be seen in a magazine or advertisement now. The image can be seen in a million different places, by a million different people all at the same time now. The camera has changed the way art is taken in and viewed.

Painting’s lost their desire to be viewed when the camera began replicating them. The original still held its unique value and sustained its ability to deliver the sense of awe provided to the viewer whilst taking in the original picture in a gallery or Church. This uniqueness was substituted to a certain extent after the camera made them reproducible.

The mimic the camera provides of the original image can alter the image by making details of bigger, busier paintings different stories altogether, like the image of the thieves being carted away to be nailed beside Jesus was extracted to become a painting on its own.

The camera has changed the way we look at things. It has influenced many different ways of looking at things, and altered many meanings carried by the paintings but it is not the only device; music has had an influence on the paintings also. Even when music is played to art it makes it ambiguous. Reproduction can be used to communicate our own lives through particular paintings. Children look at paintings and images and interpret them directly the their own experiences.

The camera is an amazing invention that skillfully provides anyone to capture a moment in time and allow an audience of millions to view the same thing at the same time. However, it did change the face of art and images by reproducing them to their millions. I find that it is amazing how the images have been completely altered and the meanings have changed because of the reproduction provided by the camera.    

5 images from the John Berger Programme: