- Publisher
- Penguin / BBC
- Published
- 1972
- Shelf
- art: Criticism
- ISBN
- 9780140135152
Criticism
Ways of Seeing
John Berger
Seven short essays, three of them without any words, on who is looking, and who is being looked at.
Why read it
Berger argues that the way we see is taught, mostly by advertising and mostly without our noticing, and that the oil painting and the glossy ad are the same claim about ownership made four hundred years apart. It turns a designer from somebody who makes images into somebody who reads them.
Why own it
The design is the argument: essays set in bold, pictures running uncaptioned, three chapters made only of images. It has to be held to work at all, and at 160 pages it is the most-borrowed book on most creative shelves.
Who it is for
Anyone who makes images for a living and has not yet asked what they are doing.
Reading order
Book 2 of 5 in the art reading order. See all 5
Read nextInteraction of ColorJosef AlbersBerger teaches you to read an image, and Albers trains the eye itself, with exercises showing how one colour changes beside another.Read before thisThe Story of Art
Opens a search on AbeBooks, a network of independent and antiquarian sellers, which is where a good part of this shelf has to be found, because it is out of print.
Read next
Chosen because they argue with this one, not because a machine noticed they share a category.
Also on the·art shelf