"Ways of Seeing" and Coming to Terms

In John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" he reemphasizes is ideas on the reproduction on art and the loss of meaning in a reproduction. An idea he introduces in this essay is one on the effect of words and art and the relationship between the two. For a piece of art to have great effect, it needs to be able to stand on its own. Captions should be optional and, in most cases, unnecessary. Having only the visual, aesthetic interpretation of a piece of art is essential to understanding its true meaning. In Rashomon, the scenes with silence hold as much if not greater importance than those with dialogue. Returning back to the idea of replication, Berger talks about how an original holds a different place and meaning than that of a reproduction. A greater connection is lost between audience and creator in a replication as the audience isn't experiencing the exact gestures and meanings as intended by the original.