Critical Thinking
John Berger's Ways of Seeing is a fascinating and interesting book that looks at the ways in which humans perceive the world around them; Berger believes that the interrelation of text to image is important, and so he intersperses photographs, paintings, hand drawings and more with their appropriate text. "It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it" (p. 7). According to Berger, visuals can articulate concepts and ideas that words simply cannot quantify, and words as a result attempt to capture what is found in images. However, no matter how hard it tries, the written word cannot match up with what is conveyed through image alone.
When we view, we are placing ourselves in that situation we are seeing, allowing our perspective to give us an inkling as to the meaning and significance of the image. "Perspective makes the single eye the centre of the visible world. Everything converges on to the eye as to the vanishing point of infinity" (p 16). However, with photographs and video, Berger thinks that the perspective is removed, since you can no longer place it in a certain time and space that you can completely relate to. "What you saw was relative to your position in time and space. It was no longer possible to imagine everything converging on the human eye as on the vanishing point of infinity" (p. 18). Instead, a single image can be seen by many people, which removes the uniqueness of that viewing experience, as well as divorces it from context. This also takes away some of the meaning of that visual image, making it important to view things from a single, present perspective to benefit from its full importance.
The book itself has many different, unique ways to convey this connection between text and image. On page 27, a Van Gogh painting, in black and white, is set, and the text informs us that we should "look at it for a moment. Then turn the page" (p. 27). Once I did that, we see the same picture up there, with text blurbs that state the name and date of the play. Also, you see the simple phrase "This is the last picture that Van Gogh painted before he killed himself" (p. 28). This left a lasting impact on me as a reader, and burned that image into my mind. The power of that moment was incredible.
I was completely engaged by Berger's perspective on the value of seeing versus reading. I do believe that language, despite its complexity, is too limited to truly encompass every image and experience we go through. If it were, the phrase "words cannot describe what ____" would not have the resonance it does today. We all have subtly different ways of looking at an image, or the world around us, that no two perspective can replicate. With that in mind, the image and the visual must be remember as being incredibly important to the human experience of learning. Berger manages to convey this idea very well, and I admire his ability to summarize these feelings and theories in such a succinct, to the point way.
References
Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. Penguin.
