67 pages 2 hours read

John Berger

Ways Of Seeing

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1972

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Essay Topics

1.

Choose a contemporary advertisement. Use Berger’s principles and methodology to elucidate the ways of seeing that the advertisement both utilizes and creates. Tie these ways of seeing to contemporary political, economic, cultural, and social contexts.

2.

Choose a photographic work of art from a time period other than our own. Use Berger’s principles and methodology to elucidate the ways of seeing that the advertisement both utilizes and creates. Tie these ways of seeing to the political, economic, cultural, and social elements that formed the contexts for the work of art’s creation.

3.

Select a contemporary depiction of a woman that conforms to the conventions of the nude. The image can be from any number of visual contexts—advertising, memes, fine art, political photography, etc. Use Chapter Three as a starting point for your visual investigation of your chosen image. In what specific ways does it conform to the principles of the nude? Why do you think it was designed to conform to those principles? (Take its context and purpose into account.)

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By John Berger