In the first chapter of the book John Berger asserts that we establish our place in the surrounding world thruought sight, and explain it with words. Perspectives of sights are determinated either by knowledge or faith; the related example in the book is the meaning and asociation of fire in the middle ages and today. Further on, the author separates sight from a mechanical reacting to stimuli where seeing is conditioned by the act of looking, which is an act of choice, and thus also a photo ceases to be a mechanical record because it radiates with the presence of the person who took that photo. Man made images can outlast what they represent, and when that happens, the image gradually starts to represent the way how the image maker looked at what the image represented, which is the result of an increasing conciousness of individuality that historically exists since the beginning of the Renaissance. In the moment when an image becomes a pice of art, the way it is looked upon changes because of the learned assumptions about art. These assumptions mistifies art rather than it helps clarifying it. Upon the invention of the camera, paintings become accessible to everyone aswell as mobile. This means that we can now see the paintings in different places(contexts), whereas before the painting belonged to it's originating building(i.e. a church) or to a museum. At this point, paintings are being mistified with the concept of the original, where the price of the painting reflects its spiritual value: The majority take it as axiomatic that the museums are full of holy relics which refer to a mystery which excludes them: the mystery of unnacountable wealth One another aspect of change in the era of pictorial reproduction is the meaning of the painting. This is done in many ways; by reproducing a detail of a painting, by adding words , by images that are seen before and after the painting. This illustrates the possibility that reproduction gives to anybody to generate context and meaning. Here berger states that the National Cultural Heritage exploits the authority of art to glorify present social system by making inequality seem noble and hierarchies seem thrilling. The question Berger poses with this essay, is of in which way, and for what purpose the language of images(what is in place if the art of the past) is used, which is for instance reproduction copyright, ownership of art presses and publishers, and policies of art galleries and museums, which should not be presented, or looked upon as narrow professional issues, but as a political issue.