Chapter 1 of Ways of Seeing by John Berger

John Berger's Ways of Seeing is a book that critiques the way society looks at art and the way it is perceived. Berger argues that the way we look at art is influenced by the dominant ideology of the time. He uses the example of a photograph of a woman from a 1950s Vogue magazine to illustrate his point. The photograph is captioned with the idea that the woman is 'available', implying that she is a commodity to be consumed. Berger argues that this caption is a reflection of the societal attitudes towards women during the 1950s, where women were seen as objects rather than individuals. He also discusses how the caption changes the way the viewer looks at the image, influencing their perception of the woman in the photograph.