As a novelist, art critic, and cultural historian, John Berger is a writer of dazzling eloquence and arresting insight whose work amounts to a subt...
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Mar 23, 2011
Brynn
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"All theories of ultimate origin are only ways of better defining what followed." (8)
"The photographic moment for Strand is a biographical or historic moment, whose duration is ideally measured not by seconds but by its relation to a lifetime. Strand does not pursue an instant, but encourages a moment to arise as one might encourage a story to be told." (47)
"What served in place of the photograph; before the camera's invention? The expected answer is More...
"The photographic moment for Strand is a biographical or historic moment, whose duration is ideally measured not by seconds but by its relation to a lifetime. Strand does not pursue an instant, but encourages a moment to arise as one might encourage a story to be told." (47)
"What served in place of the photograph; before the camera's invention? The expected answer is More...
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Mar 28, 2010
sdw
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Berger's book is a series of short essays (each originally published as a column in New Society ) examining the act of looking at visual culture. I picked this book up to assist in a project analyzing "the right to look" in several food studies texts. The first essay, suggested by the cover, engages the act of looking at Zoo animals and Berger's contention that zoo animals do no look back at us. This is the only essay I found really helpful for my project. I may have had a differen
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Dec 16, 2009
adam
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Hit-or-miss collection of essays. Berger's a really good writer, but there's a heavy Marxist slant to his thinking that makes a lot of this book seem dated and difficult to understand. That said, his essay "Why Look at Animals?" is terrific, one of the best I've read.
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Dec 25, 2009
Adam
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If you're new to Berger (or to the art world in general), I recommend skipping this and instead picking up "Ways of Seeing." That collection is far more accessible to a general audience.
"About Looking" is full of Berger's insightful and impressive commentary on art and photography. (And the collection "Uses of Photography" in this work is a good read for those who make their living behind the lens.) Where this edition fails, for me, is in its lack of il More...
"About Looking" is full of Berger's insightful and impressive commentary on art and photography. (And the collection "Uses of Photography" in this work is a good read for those who make their living behind the lens.) Where this edition fails, for me, is in its lack of il More...
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Mar 28, 2011
Greta
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This book reads much like it was written - as a series of articles for a newspaper. In the same way that one reads a critical review in the paper, and soon forgets it, one soon forgets the jist of what Berger was getting at. His commentary, while mildly interesting in the moment, comes across as a bit of navel gazing which, at the end of the day, makes no difference in how one goes about looking at art at all. It's all just his own speculation. Also, the reproductions in the book are useless
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Nov 22, 2010
Amari
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I had some difficulty with the longer essays in the first section of the book, but strangely, I discovered (after limping through a few pages at a time, week after week) that I was reading the book with too-great attention. I needed to take it somehow less seriously in order to receive the intended content and not become mired in the individual sentences. I find many of Berger's provocative social statements very attractive -- and, in equal measure, tough. Even with my spotty knowledge of art hi
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Nov 02, 2008
Smoothw
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An interesting enough collection of essays, although I would say that only the first and last in the collection are really essential. The rest read exactly as they are, newspaper or magazine columms with one or two interesting ideas not greatly developed, with a certaim ephemeral quality that comes from anything that is meant to be put in next weeks recycling. There is also a certain repition, which might have come either from a deadline or the rigidity of marxist analysis, However the first es
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Feb 14, 2010
I was thinking so deeply about this book that I forgot to swipe my Metrocard and slammed myself against the subway turnstile. Bruises for Berger!
Jun 01, 2008
Sil
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Descubrí a Berger gracias a mi amiga Rosario. Me había contado una vez, hablando de las experiencias de mirar animales en Africa, que este libro tenía artículo sobre los animales en el zoológico. Coincidíamos en que mirar un animal en su "entorno supuestamente natural", te cambia mucho la percepción sobre los bichos y sobre la naturaleza en general.
El libro es maravilloso. Es el arte de mirar, pero reflexionado de una manera super poética, pausada y reposada. El primer artículo More...
El libro es maravilloso. Es el arte de mirar, pero reflexionado de una manera super poética, pausada y reposada. El primer artículo More...
Dec 29, 2008
Rick
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Return to my old intro to Art Theory; 'old' being the key word here... mindblowing thoughts from the late 1970s.
May 06, 2009
Erdem
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Tell me something I don't know Berger, tell me something I don't know... Visual culture fully dumbed down.
Jan 24, 2009
Rakshya
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Great essays. My favourite is a description of a field in the last essay. I will never forget it.
Apr 29, 2008
Indfusion
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Well I bought this book for the photo essays, I loved it for all the essays. Very insightful and well-written, it, as good criticism does, made me feel my ignorance of that which I didn't know - which was a lot - and made me want to learn more. I should have read it before traveling Paris and Florence: I could have appreciated my museum visits all the more and learned where to look.
I will read his other art books as well.
I will read his other art books as well.
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Jan 17, 2008
Eric
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Berger's insights can be profound, but too often they seem to get bogged down in Marxist rhetoric and theory. I'd go so far to say that he's overrated, but at least he has a point of view and a well-argued one. I'd stick with his beguiling fiction instead.
Sep 14, 2007
Michelle
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the essay "looking at animals" is really fascinating. chances are you'll have some problems with what Berger has to say about looking (at women in particular), but if you are interested in visual culture and spectacle, you'll get much from reading this book.
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