Thought provoking... - Rated 
I recently had to read this as the basis for an essay, but was pleasantly surprised. It is an interesting snippet questioning our view of art and if it has changed throughout history. I found a few of the assumptions a little irritating, such as that Reubens would not have been aware of the device of depicting the human body in an anatomically incorrect pose in order to give the impression of movement. (Particularly as this is something that was well known among artists for hundreds of years and had been used by Leonardo da Vinci for example).
However, if you are looking for a thought provoking, unusual look at how images have been used throughout history, give it a go. Its not a long book and some of the chapters are purely visual to allow the viewer to come to their own conclusions.
Essential reading for any kind of visual artist - Rated 
This compact, easy to read pictoral/text book is a great aid to understanding the semantics of visual conception. You may think some of it obvious, and some of it a bit cooky, for example its marxist angles on the reasons why we see things the way we have come to, but it does get the student of all things visual thinking hard about it all. Whilst not being a specific aid to any particular field, it is an essential general reader for anyone studying the visual arts, from graphic design to theatre design, and from architecture to photography, and it's why it is still a standard first year college issue on so many courses.
Confounding seeing with perception. - Rated 
Berger's book is a typical leftist product of the period. He is so desperate to bring class war into the topic that he comes across as faintly absurd. For example - and there are many such - he talks of "..the esoteric approach of a few specialised experts who are the clerks of the nostalgia of a ruling class in decline." when criticising other art critics. I often found myself laughing aloud at such pompous absurdities.
When it comes to his "seeing comes before words" he shows he does not understand the difference between 'seeing' and 'perception' which he muddles turn and turn about. He suggests we drop our assumptions of form, status, taste when viewing an artwork as these are 'mystifications' and we should instead 'see' the art in unencumbered form, as it were. He proceeds to suggest we 'Study this evidence and judge for yourself'. But how could we apply thought to our 'seeing' and avoid it becoming a perception? For that is what he is asking us to do. How could we differentiate what we see without perception? All he does is to introduce his own view of how we should look at art and claim it is better than a different (capitalist?) way.
His views on the representation of women will fascinate archeologists of sociology. He appears oblivious of the fact that women have always been able to view images of men sexually.
Some sound ideas, but out-of-date and prejudiced - Rated 
A short beginner's guide to the philosophy of art, John Berger's 1972 book "Ways Of Seeing" is often talked about as being a seminal piece of critical writing about art, but it lacks the relevance and profundity that it may have been credited with on its first publication 35 years ago.
The principles that Berger details about the viewer and the subject in imagery are simple but sound. All too often Berger is either stating the obvious or making rather questionable generalisations (for example "All publicity works on anxiety. The sum of everything is money, to get money is to overcome anxiety.")
It is, though other reviewers disagree, definitely dated. Image production and manipulation has developed too far, and become too international, in the last 35 years for "Ways Of Seeing" to even hope to be relevant. It is inherently bigoted, fixated by the English upper classes, and also for example gives some importance to the 'recent' arrival of colour photography as being an important influence on advertising.
Berger seems to particularly enjoy writing chapter 3 (one of the longest chapters), about nude women, which makes very few points about the form and seems like a cheap excuse to reproduce various images of undressed ladies...
A big drawback is that the typography of this book is awful. Considering that its subject matter is that of images, I am staggered that whoever arranged it decided it would be a good idea to put the entire text in BOLD type with expanded line spacing, which leaves limited room for the reproductions of the images, many of which are reproduced far too small and with poor print quality so that you can't make out the details that Berger is actually referring to.
A must read...a mind changer... - Rated
John et al's little book (it was a collective project, as John points out in the book), is a must read, some reviewers have described it as dated, they are wrong.
The world John describes, a world of Capitalism is still with us only now we are surrounded by even more ad imagery and commodification of life, a system that works even more on the principle of what you have you are, and that all human satisfaction, emotion, happiness and attractiveness can be obtained through the purchase of commodities, so we all live in the gap between what we are and what we could be, working in jobs where we lack any control over our labour whilst daydreaming of when we are not at work, 'the future deferred' as he says as choices of consumption dominating rather than political action necessary to make history now.
All we are left with is a 'culture' that reflects the wish to buy and nothing else...
BUY THIS BOOK!
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