The third episode is how oil paint is used as a means of reflecting the socioeconomic status of the individuals who commissioned the making of the art. Women appear in paintings and images across a diverse range but Berger does not explicitly make a connection between their images thereby leaving their relationship open-ended. Episode two discusses the female nude and John Berger asserts that most paintings of women depict her as a subject of male desire or idealization. This reproduction often breaks down the narratives passed down from generation to generation as the elite seek to destabilize the public’s understanding of the meanings of the art.

Berger draw from Walter Benjamin’s work to show how reproducing brings about new contexts by changing the way the images are circulated and the ideas behind the images. The series consists of four episodes and the first episode talks about how the reproduction of images and paintings may change their original meaning. The main genre of John Berger’s ways of seeing is art, architecture, and photography. John Berger argues that this form of envy will justify the buyer loving herself more because she has something that no one else does but one could see that the publicity image steals her love for herself before buying the product and offers it back to her for the price of the product. For instance, the case of the spectator-buyer is meant to create a sense of lacing and inadequacy in the mind of the buyer by making her believe that the product will transform her into someone else who will be an object of envy for others. Thus, the depiction of certain images or painting has a profound impact on the emotional health of its viewers. For instance, the painting of a landowner surveying his estate is not meant to show what the consumer lacks, but is intended to create desire for that product and all it seems to offer.īerger’s ways of seeing deconstructs how marketing images work and the manipulation of advertising as people perceive the world around them through what they see or hear. Product publicity, as John Berger’s ways of seeing, demonstrates is not about what a consumer does not have but it’s main aim is to create desire for a particular product or lifestyle. The art is mostly about marketing and the story being told is a way of convincing the consumer to buy or purchase something he or she does not have by highlighting what the consumer lacks. Berger shows that society tends to use women as objects of desire and the images shown in advertisements and marketing campaigns bring to question the moral fabric that hold together the foundation of our culture. The main story told by the art found in John Berger’s ways of seeing, is that of our cultural relationship in portraying various themes in advertising and art.

Bergers way of seeing