Intro to Web Development - Laiba Sarwar - 9/10/2020
While watching this series, I was suprised to see that it was made in 1972, mainly because the topics were so relatable even today, in 2020.
Through out each part of the series, I found something interesting in each one.
Part One
For the first one, Berger goes through the basic history of photography and paintings, but what I found to be iconic, was when he focuses on the impact of a painting by zooming in with the camera with no background soung. He further goes on to this point by adding some peaceful music, to make the impact of the painting more peaceful. I thought that this was interesting, mainly because as someone who likes film and cinemetography, I understood the point that he made on how a camera can invoke feelings with just a simple sound or narration. Another thing that I was excited to see in this part, was at minute 20:15, Berger shows an image of girls dancing and then changes the camera to show Goyas famous Guerilla Warfare. This direct juxtaposition clearly shows the way that photographs can be shown, weather it is a happy image of dancing or war, when they are placed together, the mood can be changed in a matter of seconds.
Part Two
Part two is by far, my most favorite one! I never really studied art history before, so although it was new for me, I was not suprised to see how woman were portrayed, and it was more sad to me than interesting. With each painting that was discussed and shown, I liked the fact that Berger included a segment in which he let five woman to speak of their own reactions of the paintings. One woman spoke of how even though it is a portrait of a woman, she does not relate to it at all, or she does not see herself in the way that the woman is portrayed. I related to this since I too, don't see myself in the media that I view. For example, even though this part showed the viewpoints of five woman, they were all white, and as a South Asian woman, I don't see my own representation.
A quote that I think was memorable from this part is:
To be naked is to be oneself, to be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A nude needs to be seen as an object.
-John Berger, The Ways of Seeing: Part Two
When watching this part, I related it to the work of an organization named Guerilla Girls. The organization is annonymous and started in the 1980s, to broadcast issues of sexism, racism and the politics in the art industry. The organization uses graphic art and slogans to get their point across. Like the woman in part two, Guerilla Girls also talk about how woman are portayed in art work. In 2014, Guerilla Girls created a poster that showed the statistics of how many woman are portayed in Muesuems. In addition to this poster, Guerilla Girls also spoke about the Male Gaze in a 2020 video. They went further on the painters behind each nude portrait and how the Male Gaze is still evident in Musuems today.
Part Three
For the third part, I liked how Berger expanded on 'the ways of seeing' by showing the relationship with society and art. I never really thought that there is a specific class that art is catered too, but I now understand that the wealthy class would mostly be the ones that asked for portraits that showed their wealth or power. Since the lower classes did not have the momey to pay a painter in the first place. It was interesting to see the things that these portraits showed, the homes, the jewelery, clothing and their straight facial expressions. You can see an element of these things in the culture of Instagram if you really look closely.
Part Four
For the fourth part, I understood the idea that publicity can shape ones dreams, with each poster of a faraway place, or a skin model, the viewers can be attracted to that life, and the ads helps get those points across. One moment that stood out to me, was when Berger was filipping through this magazine in which at one page there was a photo of Pakistani refugees and in the next page, their is a wine ad. I thought that this was interesting since it created a sort of disconnect between the horrific events that are happening in this world and the ads of food and money. The juxtaposition of the two images effects how one may take in information. You can relate this back to Instagram again, since you not only see the issues of what is happening around the world but also with a backdrop of people's simple day to day lives and thoughts.
