Berger J. (1972) Ways Of Seeing. London: Marylebone.

Ways of Seeing is a collection of essays explaining that the way we see and view things is affected by our knowledge and beliefs. It is an extension and elaboration based on the BBC TV series ‘Ways of Seeing’  with John Berger. Ways of Seeing was created by five authors/ contributors- John Berger, Sven Blomberg, Chris Fox, Michael Dibb and Richard Hollis. The book consists of seven numbered essays, four use words, three only images (essays two, four and six).

I feel the books purpose and direction is to explain that the way we view art has changed over time, through technology (photography, the internet magazines etc) and that who can view art has changed- because it has become more accessible to anyone, not just higher classes of people and they view this in a positive way.  ” The masses, thanks to reproductions, can now appreciate art as the cultured minority once did”. This therefore takes some o f the elitism out of art.

However it also explains that it now is nearly impossible to see things ‘innocently’. “Images of art have become ephemeral, ubiquitous, insubstantial, available, free” … “they no longer, in themselves, have power”.  Art now is so accessible, it surrounds us. It is out of its context- out of galleries. We already have prior knowledge of the art, we already have expectations and assumptions `of it before even seeing the original or without ever seeing  the original.

Berger also explains that now there is a ”bogus religiosity” surrounding  seeing an original piece of artwork because there are so many reproductions. This therefore makes people believe that it is almost a spiritual experience to see an original piece of work, it’s an achievement to see it. However they do also explain that it is “ultimately dependant on their market value” and how this ‘spiritual experience’  of seeing an original has sadly become a “substitute for what paintings lost when the camera made them reproducible”.

However, I feel that this ‘substitute experience’ shouldn’t be seen as negative as seeing the original in the ‘flesh’ is an experience and maybe even so much more meaningful now because of how there are so many reproductions and different versions of just one painting. That when you see the real thing it is like unveiling the truth and makes you understand how different it is, or isn’t to what you have previously seen and felt towards it. Whether it being a positive or negative outcome, it is still an effective experience.

Towards end of my foundation course I created a series of experimental collages made from a collection of photographs from crime books and flowers from landscape books and magazines. I initially found an interest in the crime books because of the wide range of black and white portrait photographs/ headshots there were and thought they would be interesting to manipulate and collage with. I found keeping to the same range of colours and subjects (people and flowers) created an interesting flow and style, almost creating a series- connecting them all. I think I subconsciously found inspiration from John Stezaker- I found combining the simple images of flowers and overlaying them and incorporating them into portrait photographs really interesting and its simplicity quite effective.

I decided to continue to use the crime book as a source for photographs as I found an interest in the mug shots of the people and their intense glares. I took inspiration from Douglas Gordon’s work by using the simple action of splitting or removing the eyes of the mug shots. I found the subjects became very inhumane looking, quite monstrous. This then intrigued me to go the opposite way- and focus on just the eyes of the criminal mug shots. I created a series of simple black and white shadow drawings of the eyes and then created a continuous line drawings and projected them onto the walls of the studio using a light projector. I found this experimentation of different ways of displaying simple drawings useful and interesting as I was able to manipulate the size, density of colour and shape of the drawing easily. I therefore enjoyed this technique of light projection and will use it again for future projects.

Used these drawings on acetate to put under the light projector