Inaugural lecture: Looking and Being Seen: John Berger’s Philosophy of Visual Culture

Inaugural lecture by dr. Valeria Graziano
Classroom 138, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FFRI), University of Rijeka
Sveučilišna avenija 4, 51000 Rijeka

This week three lecture introduces students to John Berger’s unique vision within the Introduction to Visual Culture module, curated by Dr. Boris Ruzić. The course begins with foundational thinkers to ground students in critical visual theory, with Berger positioned to illuminate the ways images shape human experience and perception. Grounded in Ways of Seeing and other key works, the lecture will investigate the political, emotional, and cultural dimensions of images, especially the power dynamics in “the gaze”—who gets to look and who is looked at—in representations of gender, class, and the natural world. Moving from art to media, we will delve into how images shape emotions and social behavior, touching on empathy, voyeurism, and identification across mediums. Berger’s empathy for animals and critiques of industrialized society offer a lens to reconsider our visual relationship with animals and nature, examining how modern visual culture often detaches humans from the natural world.