Like many students, I take the 7 train to and from LaGuardia Community College. Each day, I get off at the 33rd Street Station and walk about three blocks west past Van Dam Street to the school’s main entrance on Thomson Avenue. After my classes are finished, I walk back to the station and take the 7 train home. During my walk between the station and the school, I can hear the trains loudly rumbling by on the overhead track every few minutes. In Ways of Hearing Episode 2, the author talks about how there was a massive increase in noise in the city in the 20th century because of automobiles, elevated trains, and construction. The 7 train is a living example of this. 

At first, I thought the sound was so loud (the trains are particularly audible in the 2nd floor Library), and tried to block it out by wearing earphones, trying to close off from the world around me like the author says in Ways of Hearing. However as time went on, I realized that the sound of the trains is actually part of the fabric of the city, and by listening to them rumble by, you can actually feel the rhythm of the city. For example, if the train passes by very quickly, I know it is an express train, hurrying to or from Manhattan. If the train passes by slowly, I know it is a local train, preparing to stop at 33rd Street. If I am walking back to the station and I hear a train go by, I know I have about 5 minutes or so until the next train comes. So, instead of closing off my hearing to the sounds around me, I have now learned to embrace the sound of the 7 train as it passes overhead. As the trains pass by, rumbling and screeching against the rails, they are taking people to important activities like work and school, so the train truly represents the lifeblood of the city.

The Forgotten Man

For my paper I will write about “The Forgotten Man” by John McNaughton. With the White House shown in a dreary background, this painting shows 44 U.S. presidents and a distraught young man sitting on a park bench. This painting was made in 2010, after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and shows two presidents (Bill Clinton and Franklin D. Roosevelt) applauding, while a number of other presidents (Lincoln, Reagan and Washington) show concern for the man on the bench. Meanwhile, President Obama is shown stepping on the U.S. Constitution, while James Madison appears to be trying to save it.

I would like to explore several points about this painting that are very interesting. First, this painting is different from the paintings that Berger shows in Ways of Seeing in that while the old paintings that Berger shows did not have a political message and were often intended to show the wealth of their owners or women as objects, this painting has a clear political purpose to criticize President Obama and wasteful government spending. Also, this painting demonstrates Berger’s point about how using photography to recreate paintings can change their meaning. For example, if the camera focuses on only one part of the painting, such as the presidents who are applauding, instead of showing the whole picture, the message of the painting becomes completely different. This painting is a good example of art that is used for political propaganda purposes, which I find very interesting and different from the paintings in Ways of Seeing.

In Episode 3 of “Ways of Seeing,” Berger describes how the accumulation of wealth during the Renaissance in Italy together with the rise of oil painting allowed people to hire painters to paint pictures of themselves and the things they owned. Oil painting, with its focus on objects and special ability to show the qualities of objects, became a way for those with money to showcase their wealth and power. Nowadays, instead of using oil paintings, many people show their wealth through social media, posting pictures of themselves wearing expensive clothes, eating at fancy restaurants, and traveling to exotic places.

However, one difference between now and the age of oil painting is that nowadays, some people post images on social media that make themselves look rich and glamorous, even if they are not in reality. The below photo appears to show two glamorous women with money, flying on an exclusive private plane:

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6435173/People-taking-Instagram-photos-inside-fake-private-jet-interior-inside-store.html

A viewer of this Instagram post might be envious of the glamorous lifestyle shown in the photo and of the wealth required to live this lifestyle. However, sometimes the illusion overshadows the reality. The above photo was not actually taken in a private plane, but instead in a replica created inside a store to allow people to take Instagram photos to “fake” their lavish lifestyles. The actual set, shown below, is much less glamorous:

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6435173/People-taking-Instagram-photos-inside-fake-private-jet-interior-inside-store.html

What is different between now and the oil paintings that Berger discusses, is that even though both oil paintings and social media posts are used to show wealth, nowadays for some the illusion of wealth is more important than the reality. Their goal may be to receive attention and likes and followers, which may help them to make money from social media. Although this private plane replica was created in part with a humorous aspect, it highlights how some people try to create fake images of wealth and how social media encourages this, whereas in the age of oil paintings, only the truly rich could afford to have them painted.