John Berger is able to merge together lots of different disciplines - visual materials, paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures, movies, the world, its truths and realities that exist in the world and peoples stories and emotional responses - for him they are all one thing.
John Peter Berger was born in 1926 and passed away in January 2017. After serving in the Army in WW2 he went on to study at the Chelsea School of Art and Central School of Art and Design in London. He was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. Most notably his novel ‘G.’ won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to the BBC series of the same name, is often used as a university text. He created great controversy when he donated 50% of his prize money to the Black Panthers in the US. Both the ultra right wing in the UK were incensed by this and the ultra left too when they thought he had not given enough! He lived the majority of life, 50 years in France.
Berger’s abilities to describe images in so much detail mean that you even if you haven’t seen the image it will appear in your mind - and if you have have it will pop right back in. This chapter is based on the amazing Don McCullin’s and his photographs from the war in Vietnam. His haunting images are world known. How have you processed seeing Don’s images? It got me wondering how he did. Was his experience different to the framed narrative we see? I think its pretty amazing how much of how we see an image is a reflection of our lived experience. Today Now Don shoots still life and landscape photography, and shoots a lot on 4x5 cameras. This chapter left me with the question, if you took the photos he did in the Vietnam War, how would you process that?
By drawing in so many disciplines in his written work Berger is able to capture the essence of what it means to photograph. You can be a world renowned photographer or not, you are capturing the essence of the human experience for you and for others- through reading his work he gets you thinking - thinking about your work and why it matters.
This book is a collection of essays that Berger wrote over a long period of time. The string that ties them all together is his continual effort to try and make social and human connections between all types of disciplines, some which I to some extent agree with and others I’m not so sure about.
In the Suit and the Photograph chapter - he shows this image of Three farmers going to dance - John fixates on is the suits they are wearing and how much they are like the suits in his village when they dress up and do something - the cheapness of the suits and the cuts says not only something about them but also about the world we come from today. Have things changed, if you really think about it? For Berger, art is something that means something to people.
Through his immersive writing you can get a sense of depth of what the components of a great photograph are - for you it will trigger thoughts and ideas of how and why you shoot. How you can refine how you look at the world and how you can refine and contribute more of your unique style and work.
For Berger, form and content does not exist. He is completely immersed in what is going on in the picture and what people are saying. In his second chapter he says ‘It looks as though (whatever kind of activity it might be) is going to outlive painting and sculpture as we have thought of them since the Renaissance’ he goes on to say ‘no work of art can survive and not become a valuable property’.
It’s amazing how Berger has brought together so many aspects of the human experience which help us to understand a photograph. Often through the book he drifts off and makes some tenuous links between photography and history perhaps as a way to demonstrate his knowledge about the subject. In a way the book is timeless, by reflecting on the past he gets you to think about how modern industrialists are influencing how we see and experience the world. Overall this book is an excellent read for anyone looking to learn more about how they see the world and help you to construct your own vision which communicates your story.
Understanding a Photograph is a drop in the ocean of all the work he has produced. He has translated many foriegn poems, the latest of which is by Mahmoud Darwish. You may also want to check out ‘Susan Sontag: On Photography’ which from a grapevine I have heard is very intellectual! Have you read Understanding a Photograph or any other photography books recently? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!