Blog Post #3 Assignment

After you watch episode 4 of Ways of Seeing (or even while you are watching it), provide short answers the questions below.

  1. According to Berger, how do “publicity”–what we would call advertising–images influence consumers and why is this significant?
  2. As he compares oil painting to publicity (advertising) photography, Berger argues that oil painting “showed what the owner was already enjoying among his possessions and way of life;” “it enhanced his view of himself as he already was.”  Whereas publicity pictures, “appeal to a way of life that we aspire to or think we aspire to.” Why are these differences important? What do they reveal to us about the production of images for publicity?
  3. Choose one of the “dreams” he offers or think of your own. How does this dream offered by advertising use imagery to manipulate consumers?