[Sarah-Jane Crowson]

Hi,

John Berger was a seminal UK critic of popular culture.

'Ways of Seeing' (his 1972 TV show) has its fiftieth birthday soon and there are all kinds of hashtags popping up to celebrate it.

It's also (I promise) a fantastic watch, whether you agree with Berger or not.

Here's the first half-hour episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk&authuser=0

Here's the second
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1GI8mNU5Sg&authuser=0

They led to a book, also called 'Ways of Seeing', which is equally amazing and can be picked up for a song secondhand.

I'm taking part in a range of online shindigs to celebrate/comment/think about these, despite the fact that time has started again (the Christmas holiday is now a memory, fading).

If anyone wants to join in with me you'd be very welcome. Do you have a poet-response to the first programme or an ekphrastic response to any of the images in it?

(I can post the images here if that would help)

Sarah-Jane