John Berger

Previously I had never heard of John Berger or his piece "Ways of Seeing." I did some pretty basic research and got tons of hits in just a few minutes. One research technique that I used was one my high school computer applications instructor showed me. The use of quotation marks and plus/minus signs in search engines can narrow and refine all of the hits and only display exactly what you want. I googled "Ways of Seeing" +"John Berger" so it only included those exact phrases as you see them. John's fame seems to come from this art criticism piece that he wrote in 1972 that's often used as a college text. John was born in London in 1926 and attended 2 art schools in England around the 1940's. His first career was as a painter and had many pieces exhibited at a few galleries throughout London. The book is compiled from 7 essays consisting of pictures and words. It discusses western art and was made into a 4 part television series in 1972. John Berger seems to be a pretty prolific and influential writer and artist in his day. Just from this elementary research technique I was able to find out a good bit of information in just ten minutes or so for this blog.