Ways of Seeing by John Berger

It is our primal and instinctive nature to perceive and to communicate what we see, from our earliest childhood memories to our adult lives. This need to communicate is based on our own individual preconceptions or through historical context. However, there is a disconnect present between the object we perceive and our perception of the object. And we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves [Page 9].

The image itself is a sight which can be recreated or reproduced [Page 9]. Following the invention of the camera, however, the meanings shifted, as the scope of the images taken increased dramatically to extend to the masses. Through reproduction, there is a wider availability to works of art, but at what cost?

Works of art, which are produced on a large scale through this process of reproduction, lose their uniqueness---and, in some cases, destroys their meaning and/or market value. “The camera isolated momentary appearances and in so doing destroyed the idea that images were timeless” [Page 18]. Berger states that then, the meaning of the image has changed, as the image of art, which used to stand on its own, has ultimately become the “original of a reproduction” [Page 21]. In addition, its meaning could also fracture or multiply, due to the fact that the work of art is now perceived by the masses, rather than a select few.

Because fine works of art, specifically paintings, were often times tied to religion, access was limited to the select few, the cultured minority of academia, the rich and the powerful. Featured solely in frescoes and murals in religious churches or chapels, these paintings were unique; they were not seen in any other location at a given time. In the past, the value of great works of art was defined by their rarity, as opposed to the present time, when works of art are defined by market value, which is sometimes inflated by “bogus religiosity” [Page 23].

Now, as images of art are constantly broadcasted across various media spectrums---television, photographs, billboards---these images have become mainstream and have lost all authority. Images of art have become “…ephemeral, ubiquitous, insubstantital, available, valueless, free” [Page 32].