Ways of Seeing

          Overall, I thought this article was interesting, but confusing at times. While I was able to understand the general concepts of the article, the more specific concepts became a blur to me. Despite that, I found two ideas that I found really interesting and thought-provoking. 
          The first one being, "When the camera reproduces a painting, it destroys the uniqueness of its image. As a result its meaning changes. Or, more exactly, its meaning multiplies and fragments into many meanings" (Berger 19). I never really thought about this concept before: how you interpret a painting depends on how and where you see it. Berger then continues on to talk about how a painting on your television screen, has a diversified meaning because it is being projected in a new medium (a screen) and it is now surrounded by different things. In one house the TV could be surrounded by wallpaper and pictures and books, while in the other it is surround by a blank wall. Each family sees the same image but will have a different understanding of the painting because it has a different backdrop. Even though this idea doesn't seem to have a lot of relevance, in the art world, it does. Artists chose to stage their art, painting or drawing in a certain way so that the audience understands its meaning in a certain way. When the setting varies, new and incomplete meanings can come from the artwork.
          On page twenty-three, Berger brings up the idea on how a painting can be more impressive if it has a high market value, "It became famous because an American wanted to buy it for two and a half million pounds. Now it hang in a room by itself." I don't really agree with this concept even though it is true. Just because one painting costs more than another doesn't mean it should be more famous or have a more important meaning. The example used in the text is a painting being put behind bullet-proof perspex. It says that it has " a new kind of impressiveness". This impressiveness comes from the value that is behind the canvas, not what is physically on it or what it means/represents. This is intriguing to me because there isn't any reason that a painting is more special than other, maybe the artist who painted it is more famous than another, but all paintings have their own special meaning which means they all have a special value, it just depends on your interests and beliefs.