- Hardcover: 160 pages
- Publisher: Viking Pr (Sep 1973)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670752738
- ISBN-13: 978-0670752737
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 15.5 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,681,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
Galaxies, stars, planets and now spaceships rush about the universe, and we have a sense of time passing because the positions of objects change. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Galaxies, stars, planets and now spaceships rush about the universe, and we have a sense of time passing because the positions of objects change. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
219 of 222 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
How can a paperback book that was first published in 1972 by the British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books still be held in such high esteem by its readers. Could this inexpensive book really have survived the ravages of time? The answer to this later question is evidently yes. Despite its age this book remains on most Cultural and Media studies courses lists of recommended reading and is even compulsory on some.
The book itself is comprised of six independent, and yet linked, essays. The first textual essay opens with the words 'Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak'. This essay sets the scene for all of the following essays. It identifies that we live in a world of visual imagery. Three of the essays are collections of images. Many of these have been stripped of their titles or any explanation as to who or what they represent therefore allowing the spectator to interpret them themselves. Essay number 3 looks at the nude but more importantly how the social presence of a woman is different from that of a man. Essay number 5 looks at art though mainly explores the differences between looking at or seeing a painting and the desire to possess it. It draws on the work of the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss to illustrate this point. It then slowly teaches the reader how to deconstruct an image and goes into great depth to explain how every small detail is an integral part of the final overall reading. The final essay is about publicity. Which is as relevant now as it has ever been. Even in this technologically changing world publicity still uses the past to sell the future.
The essays do not need to be read in any particular order, which makes it a very useful dip-in book and its size makes it easy to carry it around either in a bag or perhaps a large pocket. It is well written and is therefore a delight to read.
As strange as this may seem, a quote published in the book from an article written by Dziga Vertov, a soviet film director, makes a timely eulogy for the book itself.
'My way leads towards the creation of a fresh perception of the world. Thus I explain in a new way the world unknown to you'.
Although Vertov was talking about a film camera this quote could so easily describe the intention of the book itself. So the answer to why this book continues to be held in such high esteem is simple. As long as we have eyes to see, visual imagery will remain an important signifier of our culture.
In order to understand our culture we need to be able to read these images. This book helps the reader achieve this. So this little timeless paperback book will remain in pride of place amongst the multitude of hard cover books on my office shelf and no doubt the shelves of many homes and University libraries for many years to come. I would recommend it to anyone.
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Ways of Seeing' is a book which some readers may find a bit puzzling. The ads reproduced in its pages look naive to us, in their unsophisticated emphasis on luxury and glamour, and Berger's commentary on advertising may seem a bit simple, but if so it's because he was one of the first and best critics to compare the effects and uses of advertising and fine art. The main difference between him and most contemporary commentators is that Berger had an independent perspective that they lack; his analysis has far more steel and indignation than the work of someone like Peter York, who comments on ads from the insider's perspective of "Is it effective or not?" Berger refuses to be seduced into talking about ads on their own terms. While the specific tactics used in advertising may be different now from what they were when this book was originally published, the basic strategy is still the same as it will ever be: to sell us not a product but a lifestyle.
Anyone who has travelled in a less-well-off country that has a functioning advertising industry (Greece, for instance) will have noticed that billboard ads there tend to be like early 70s ads in richer countries: they promote a dream of luxury, wealth and sophistication. Ads in the UK and Ireland are aimed at people who already think of themselves as reasonably wealthy and sophisticated, and so UK and Irish ads tend to promote an idea of the consumer as being rootsy, down-to-earth, unpretentious, sensible - all the things that we secretly fear we aren't. The tactic is different, but the strategy (to play on the consumer's hopes and fears about what kind of person they are) is the same.
Berger's work is hardly full of undigested chunks of Marxist doctrine, unlike the far more impenetrable and far less useful work of (e.g.) the Art & Language group. If you come across his work when you're young or ignorant enough, he is one of the most liberating writers around. He teaches you not to agree with him, but how to be critical in the first place; he provokes you into wondering if and how he could be right, which is a gift from a writer to a reader.
This is a relatively entry-level Berger. The early novels are not really very good, except for the first one, "A Painter of our Time". The Booker-winning "G" is a masterpiece, and the more recent fiction has been equally excellent but different in tone and method. The book-length non-fiction, such as "A Fortunate Man", "A Seventh Man", "Another Way of Telling", is all superb. He is one of the best English writers and as he passes 80, his work shows no sign of declining in quality or intensity.
It should be stated that this is only the accompanying book of a TV series which, shamefully, isn't available on DVD. "Ways of Seeing" the programme is still pretty mind-blowing, right from the cheeky opening sequence where Berger appears to cut up an actual Botticelli. The whole show is, or used to be, available in bits on YouTube. I would rather sit through a TV show by Berger than the whole of Kenneth Clark's contemporary and far more expensive "Civilisation", which has been released on DVD.
Anyone who has travelled in a less-well-off country that has a functioning advertising industry (Greece, for instance) will have noticed that billboard ads there tend to be like early 70s ads in richer countries: they promote a dream of luxury, wealth and sophistication. Ads in the UK and Ireland are aimed at people who already think of themselves as reasonably wealthy and sophisticated, and so UK and Irish ads tend to promote an idea of the consumer as being rootsy, down-to-earth, unpretentious, sensible - all the things that we secretly fear we aren't. The tactic is different, but the strategy (to play on the consumer's hopes and fears about what kind of person they are) is the same.
Berger's work is hardly full of undigested chunks of Marxist doctrine, unlike the far more impenetrable and far less useful work of (e.g.) the Art & Language group. If you come across his work when you're young or ignorant enough, he is one of the most liberating writers around. He teaches you not to agree with him, but how to be critical in the first place; he provokes you into wondering if and how he could be right, which is a gift from a writer to a reader.
This is a relatively entry-level Berger. The early novels are not really very good, except for the first one, "A Painter of our Time". The Booker-winning "G" is a masterpiece, and the more recent fiction has been equally excellent but different in tone and method. The book-length non-fiction, such as "A Fortunate Man", "A Seventh Man", "Another Way of Telling", is all superb. He is one of the best English writers and as he passes 80, his work shows no sign of declining in quality or intensity.
It should be stated that this is only the accompanying book of a TV series which, shamefully, isn't available on DVD. "Ways of Seeing" the programme is still pretty mind-blowing, right from the cheeky opening sequence where Berger appears to cut up an actual Botticelli. The whole show is, or used to be, available in bits on YouTube. I would rather sit through a TV show by Berger than the whole of Kenneth Clark's contemporary and far more expensive "Civilisation", which has been released on DVD.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I must first confess that I am not an art historian, nor have I any wish to be. I came to this book from the perspective of a photographer looking for insight into how and why we see things the way we do,and the relationship between the artist and image, and between the image and the viewer. In this respect this book has much of value to offer, and is clearly considered 'essential reading' with good reason. Of course some of the ideas, particularly the political perspectives, are dated. That is inevitable and forgivable. Every work is a product of it's time, and the entire political and social map has been re-drawn since this was written. What was of value to the reader then is still so now.
My one damning criticism of this book is that, especially as it is an exploration of the visual, the quality of the reproductions is a complete disaster. Tiny, indistinct monochrome illustrations hamper the written essays and render the purely pictorial ones completely 'unreadable'. If there is a pricier hardback edition of this book available, with proper reproductions, it would be well worth the investment. If not, by all means buys the paperback, but be aware that you will only get about half of the work's true value from it.
My one damning criticism of this book is that, especially as it is an exploration of the visual, the quality of the reproductions is a complete disaster. Tiny, indistinct monochrome illustrations hamper the written essays and render the purely pictorial ones completely 'unreadable'. If there is a pricier hardback edition of this book available, with proper reproductions, it would be well worth the investment. If not, by all means buys the paperback, but be aware that you will only get about half of the work's true value from it.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great book!
The book is suitable for people who want to understand new way of seeing object differently; it has a lot of visual referencing which are quite useful for essay referencing. Read more
Published 6 months ago by May
ART
After reading this book you won't see art in the same way as before -it's an eye opener for those who have never studied art. Read more
Published 6 months ago by DreamCatcher
Very Good
I received this book very quickly and the item was exactly as described on Amazon. Very good Seller. Thank you.
Published 7 months ago by R. Young
Brilliant, remind us the simple things we forget to remember in our...
Great book. Very easy to read, made me feel slightly guilty for being so ignorant and lacking knowledge in art history. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Yulz
A poorly set book
It always baffles me as to why books concerning art and aesthetics never seem to receive any TLC when it comes to their own appearance. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Dan
Ways of seeing by John Berger
This classic from the 70's has stood the test of time.If you are interested in art,how to critique it,what influences how we we see it, then this is the book for you. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Sylvie
Very fast
The book came very quickly to my house. Overall it was a very smooth process and I would buy from them again.
Published 15 months ago by AaronH
Changed the way I Look at the world
this is a very relevant book in all aspects of life because it refers to the mainstream media and the history of art in a way that i have never heard before. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Peter Faretra
Christmas present
The book along with another one arrived shortly after I ordered them and the packaging was in perfect condition. I have no complaints whatever. Thanks again.
Published 17 months ago by Katag
Great, easy read
Fun book to read for anyone doing image analysis, especially related to women's image or advertising.
Published on 26 May 2010 by Koskela
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
