About Looking

ist publishing is an independent small publisher specializing in books on contemporary culture and art.

The collection of texts by British art critic and writer John Berger “About Looking” consists of three parts: the foundational essay for animal studies “Why Look at Animals?” (1977) and two sections comprising 22 texts (1966–1979), written mainly for the weekly magazine New Society (UK), brought together in this edition under the titles “Uses of Photography” and “Living Moments.”

Berger writes about the long history of relationships between humans and animals, reflects on Susan Sontag’s “On Photography” and discusses August Sander, Paul Strand and war photography, the relationship between body and landscape, and the work of Courbet, Millet, Turner, Bacon, Magritte and others. Across these texts he develops the perspective of a critic looking at works of the past from the standpoint of his own time, highlighting connections and tensions between personal experience and history.