Coming to Terms & Ways of Seeing

After reading Berger's 'Ways of Seeing', I found a new understanding of the actual importance of real artistic work. This essay reminded me of an introductory journalism class I took a few semesters ago. From the beginning of my Journalism course the professor spoke about how the introduction of the camera, and later the video camera greatly depreciated the value of artistic work. I think this touches directly on what Berger was saying in his essay. He argues that by being able to simple reproduce a classic painting or drawing causes the original piece to lose its value. This is because no longer does the spectator have to travel to the artwork, but rather the artwork can come to them in a slightly depreciated way. Not being able to see an original Davinci in it's true glory takes away from the impact the painting is supposed to have on the person viewing it. One cannot fully appreciate such an artwork when they can not even see the distinct brush strokes and color choices the artist has made, up close.