What Is The Importance Of Ways Of Seeing By John Berger

A common English idiom says “a picture is worth a thousand words” but sometimes there aren’t even words to describe a picture. That is the case for “The Pillars of Creation”. This picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The photo depicts a nebula with three towers of gaseous regions, hence the name; in a way, it is metaphorical. Fortunately, for the normal people in the world, there are no controversies that provoke unreasonable people. The article “Ways of Seeing”, by John Berger, can be used to analyze the significance of this artwork. The significance of the “pillars of creation” is the idea that we all have a natural curiosity to learn and see more. When you look at it you instantly want to see more incredible and undiscovered sights. While some people may look at this photo and lose interest because it isn’t blatantly controversial, I look beyond the lack of controversy and see the ever-present curiosity of mankind and the beauty of pure creation. When people see something completely new to them often they have problems …show more content…
This is a rare opportunity because usually when people look at a work of art, our perceptions of it are different. “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.” (Berger, p. 8). This means that our perceptions of art can and will be changed by personal beliefs. The reason this is a rare opportunity is because there is nothing to sway people’s perception of the photograph. They either see it or they don’t. The motivation behind the creation of this photograph is pure and doesn’t contain anything that would suggest a hidden agenda of any sort. There is one trend that has been shown throughout the existence of human’s that haven’t been observed in other species. We are always searching for answers and because of this we have our advanced technology