Modos de ver

Seeing comes before words, yet we never see innocently. John Berger asks why we look at images the way we do, starting from the camera's upheaval: once a painting can be photographed, cropped, captioned and streamed, it leaves its church or palace and its meaning multiplies and fragments on its way to the viewer. He shows how European oil painting flattered its owners by turning everything it touched, from food and fabrics to land and women, into possessions to be displayed. He contrasts being naked with being nude, a body arranged for a male spectator, and traces that gaze into modern advertising, where glamour promises transformation through buying. You learn to catch images in the act of persuading you.