My tutor suggested Ways of Seeing (1972) by John Berger as a key text to inform my research. Originally a BBC television series, it was later published as part of the Penguin on Design collection within the Penguin Modern Classics series. The book challenges how we view and interpret art, considering how meaning is shaped by factors such as context, reproduction, class, and gender.
As Berger writes,
*“*Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak.
But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the Earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight. The Surrealist painter Magritte commented on this always-present gap between words and seeing in a painting called The Key of Dreams*.”*
He later expands on this idea, explaining that vision forms the foundation of our understanding of the world: we describe it with language, but words can never replace the act of seeing itself. This perspective highlights how perception is both personal and shaped by wider social systems, an idea that could be applied to my own paintings.
Rather than focusing on factual details like finances or identity, Berger’s approach encourages me to explore the possible stories and interpretations that exist within the imagery. His work invites a more speculative and reflective approach to seeing, one that prioritises emotional and social context over pure documentation.
Like Berger, I’m interested in how context shapes perception. The way I frame my subjects, the colours I choose, and the environments I place them in all influence how their stories are read, even when little factual information is given.
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