"Triangulation" - 'Ways of Seeing' By John Berger

‘Seeing comes before words…It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words.’

‘Ways of Seeing’ by John Berger here opens with the thought that the visual and spoken word are never settled and in a way disconnected. The idea that the initial response we have is to ‘see’; this basic first sense where words are not yet clouding the view. The second response is to explain what we see through the knowledge we establish from the surrounding world. This divide between how we ‘see’ and the way we explain it is an interesting thought; it is one that is an occurring theme throughout the book. Berger is exploring different elements of ‘seeing’, which ultimately aims to broaden a new understanding to the reader. This books intention is to also highlight how important it is to understand the ways of seeing. In general most don’t think about how we see things and how this impacts on our daily lives. Berger reveals this through many different ways which helps the reader get a balanced view of his argument. However I found Berger’s writing style a little off-putting, and generally never that straight forward. In a sense I feel this confusing style technique makes the reader double-take and re-read until they can clearly understand. This in some ways is good because it doesn’t let the reader speed through the book without having properly digested it. ‘Ways of Seeing’ I feel is worth a recommendation; it certainly opens your mind to the idea of ‘seeing’ which is after all the main aspect to the book!