According to this picture and in episode #1 Berger talks about how images could be used to manipulate. The viewer’s point of view and the 9/11 image shows you how made by photographer in order to make meaning of it. We can see here a foreground image of five young people look happy one side  but we think deep into it. Across the river from New York with fire billowing from the Twin Towers so picture  is automatically drawn in two parts. There’s a contrast to stark contrast between this disaster on the other side of river with the smoke billowing out of manhattan and  these five young people look enjoying and having a chat but we notice that this photo become a sign of young people not carrying about events  in the world.

This photo was taken by Diana Davies at the beginning of gay rights movement in the 1970s. It’s an image of Donna Gottshalk, a famous lesbian photographer, holding up a sign written on it “I am your worst fear / I am your best fantasy”. Her attitude shows a great confidence and a mighty confrontation. She is addressing men, and she is kind of trying to say that “I am the one who satisfies your desires, but sorry for that you can not force me to do anything”. The way how she stands and looks and what wrote in the sign, all in all, it gives a strong message which I really like to discuss. In this world, we could ask women about anything in their lives and how they live, but we can’t do that with men. Why? I have no idea. If I ask someone this question, the answer is simple “Because you are a woman”, and I am curious to know what does it mean to be a woman for society. Maybe they don’t acknowledge her as a human being, who knows. Women are really victims in society. She is persecuted in anything. If we look at any anything in this life, we see that women are inferior even in their salaries. Overall, it’s such a sensitive issue and I will talk about it more in my paper 1. 

From the picture that was taken in Brooklyn on September 11^th, 2001, there was a group of five young people sitting and enjoying their lunch break while the huge smoke is back of them. That was a series four attacks by the Islamic terrorist group against the US. The attacks killed 2,977 people, injured over 6,000 others, and caused at least 10 billion in damage. In addition, there are people dying from related disease in the months and years later. The smoke in the picture shows the big strategies that happened in that moment, many people lose their health and many people lose their lives. The war is happening close to them but this group of young people just ignore the danger. They think they live in the peace, they think the war is never going to relate to them, they think they are young so they will not die. They think they have a protector because they are American, but when the country was attacked in front of their eyes, they think that is not a big deal, and still think they are safe. No one believes the strategy is going to happen to them. This is related to the composition of the picture that John Berger talks in the Ways of Seeing. The foreground is a colorful and relaxing scene shows people are talking and laughing in Brooklyn, the background is dark and vague showing the big smoke is around the sky above Manhattan. Relax and strategy are against to each other in the picture, the river in the middle of the picture is the transition, maybe people in the picture think they are safe because they are in the other side of the river.

The image I decided to write about is the picture of Donna Gottschalk. The sign she’s holding saying “I am your worst fear, I am your best fantasy”. This message really got me thinking about John Bergers “Ways of seeing” episode 2. In the Episode he said how nude pantings of women are for men pleasure. Putting these two things together made me think that the message was probably for men to see. I can also connect the picture to how lesbian are view today. Not so long ago I seen a video on Snapchat about a lesbian couple who were beat by at least four men because they wouldn’t kissed for their pleasure. This prove Bergers point. Women are not meant for men pleasure or their fantasy thats why we keep fighting for our rights.

The USA. Brooklyn, New York. September 11, 2001. Young people relax during their lunch break along the East River while a huge plume of smoke rises from Lower Manhattan after the attack on the World Trade Center.

I propose to discuss the image of 9/11 in which I see young people like what Thomas Hoepker said, they are having a good time talking to each other and they are relaxing while there was an intense event happening in the background. It seems like some people back in the day do not mind or do not even care about the situations happening in society. They only think about themselves and pretend that the attack did not happen. I mean, who would want to focus on the negative things when there is a lot more positive situation happening around you. Nice weather and a great company cannot be ruined by some attacks from anybody. That was my thought about what these young people do. I can relate this photograph on Berger’s episode 1 in which he discussed the camera, using a camera in paintings makes the meaning different. There is a lot of meaning that has been changed and words that have been added to the meaning of the painting. Because everything we see on social media is fake, what makes it legit is when we see paintings with our own eyes in reality. 

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.

The picture that I chose to write about in my first paper is Donna Gottshalk. She is an American photographer who was active in the 1970s and came out as lesbian around the time that Radicalesbians and the Furies Collective formed.

This picture was taken in Gay Liberation Day rally in 1970.I will compare the work she was doing at that time and in turn the perspective that John Berger shows in his episodes.

In addition, I also chose this image because I find it shocking to investigate a woman who supported the LGBTI group in the 70s when it was called taboo, in the same way to know more about her life and what led her to rely on these photographs.