Ways of Seeing
How do we see the world around us? The Penguin on Design series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision forever."Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.""But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled."John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings... he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." By now he has.
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- I very recently wrote a review of Ways of Seeing for a book-reviewing challenge. I'm a big fan of Ways of Seeing (got into it through the BBC series, free on YouTube), and I'd like to share my review here!
https://cannonballread.com/2026/10/ways-of-seeing-carmen-ghi...
- I recommend John Berger's Ways of Seeing for a much more elaborate (and accessible) way to think about art
- What a great way to put it. I went looking and it’s from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing.
> The spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she buys the product. She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an object of envy for others, an envy which will then justify her loving herself. One could put this another way: the publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her for the price of the product.
- The original, which is for sure a lovely photo, is difficult because the image exists for a purpose which isolates, and simultaneously draws attention to, certain demographics. I recommended checking out Berger's series Ways of Seeing, which explains it a lot better than I can.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ways_of_Seeing
I'm sure Lena could say she had the photo taken for herself and her own enjoyment of her beauty, however it was paid for by by a men's magazine so self-appreciation probably not what she or the photographer had in mind.
"Berger asserts that only twenty or thirty nudes in the European oil painting tradition depict a woman as herself rather than as a subject of male idealisation or desire."
- Twas always thus, and is beautifully described by John Berger in his book nd tv series Ways of Seeing. In, I think, 1974? Well worth your youtube time.
- > To develop taste, study the world.
well said for one should be able to discern, i.e., one gains a semblance after thousands upon thousands of impressions
> Sorry, enough poetry
don't apologize! poetry is quite analogous to design i find: some to tend to overlook the fact that poetry is not simply a literary form/genre but a manner of seeing the world [and a manner of being-in-the-world (an assemblage: a way of assembling one's life)]
aside from, say, starting an archive of design one finds noteworthy on something like https://www.are.na/, the following which are on my to-read list seem mighty seedful:
- Ways of Seeing: https://www.ways-of-seeing.com/
- Designing Design: https://www.lars-mueller-publishers.com/designing-design
- The Politics of Design: http://thepoliticsofdesign.com/about-the-book
