🖼Review - Ways of seeing (1972) - John Berger

It is a case of you don't know what you've got until it's gone. I was vaguely aware of John Berger, mostly hearing him referred to as the guy who gave his Booker prize to the Black Panthers. So as a result of the coverage of his death, I was introduced to his 4-episode, 1972 documentary Ways of Seeing. 

This documentary is up there in quality and passion with such great documentaries of the era such as Carl Sagan's Cosmos. It does have a slower pace than something made now, but it never feels dull. 

Aimming to demystify 'high culture' from the chains of heavy terms, Berger covers European painting from 1400 - 1900 and the echoes in mid-20th century culture. 

My favourite episode (or the one for which I took down the most notes) was the third, which discusses art as a commodity, but then looks back at why this is. The European oil paintings of this era, according to Berger, are the 'Images of the things which are desirable." Rich people had painters paint them along side their property, livestock, mistresses, slaves and junk to preserve and show off there spender. It was "a medium which celebrated private possessions."