Ways of Seeing - Essay

     I am not sure what we were supposed to take away from the film”Ways of Seeing” by John Berger, and I don't believe Mr. Berger said anything in the film that with a little thought and common sense I couldn't have figured out on my own.  Still the film was filled with pictures of beautiful paintings and to be honest I never gave anything Mr. Berger talked about much thought so the film did open my mind up to so some new ideas.

     In the film Mr. Berger talked about how paintings are still, silent images, which to me sounds like a moment in time or maybe a moment from the painter's mind captured in silence.  He also talked about how paintings are painted from the perspective of the viewer, and how paintings were specifically designed for specific places or buildings.

     He then went on to discuss how with modern technology and inventions like the camera, paintings could be manipulated and used for other things than they were originally meant.  He described how a camera could take a picture of just a piece of a painting, and how by only seeing that piece out of context with the painting the meaning of that piece changes.  He went on to demonstrate how with different sounds, music in particular, your interpretation could change, and lastly he described how your interpretation of a painting could change from what you see around or before and after you see the painting.

     Perhaps the most important thing Mr. Berger talked about though was the mystery and complicated meanings given to art.  Mr. Berger suggests that to view art more clearly you might be better off to forget about these things.  He demonstrated this by showing a painting to a group of children, who having known nothing about the painting or the painter made some very accurate observations about them.