Managed to find a couple of extracts from Berger's original television broadcast on YouTube. One was approximately 8 mins long from what was presumably the start of Episode 2 and the other short clips from the same episode. It is difficult, at this remove, to see why Berger's pronouncements made such an impact. I was left with the feeling that he started with a statement about the difference between 'naked' and 'nude' that was a statement of the obvious. Of course this is because it has now become part of the accepted wisdom and so is simply seen as an obvious truth. Unfairly I also found it difficult to take seriously what was being said because of his direct look at the camera and the use of a tone of voice that suggested that what was happening was dramatic (as it may well have been) and earth shattering (which I doubt).
Looked through chapter 2 in 'Ways of Seeing' [John Berger BBC and Penguin Books first published 1972]. I followed this by looking through a couple of newspapers and magazines. It would seem that little has changed. It was easy to find women depicted as objects for a variety of purposes including in some political shots. It was far less easy to find positive images of women. One thing that struck me was in the two newspapers that I had (Guardian and The Sun ) on Thursday 2nd Feb there was a noticeable absence of women in the sports pages. As I increase my collection for the project I will pay special attention to this element.
As it will take a little time to accumulate the minimum of 24 images required in this project although I am not sure what is the "opposite position" of 12 that illustrate "the visualisation of women today" I propose reading on and completing other projects where material is easier and quicker to acquire (at least I hope so).
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