No Photography

Reader James Kelley, in Chicago, found this in his Tribune a couple of days ago.

To be fair, here's the Tribune's website and here's Harry Bliss's (worth a visit, too).

Lost in my archives somewhere I have the real version of this. There was an exhibition of contemporary photography at the Museum of Modern Art a number of years ago. By the entrance to the exhibit, off to the side, on its own stand, was a sign that said "Photography Not Allowed." It was the middle of a weekday, and there were very few people around, so I moved the sign to right in front of the entrance to the show and took a picture of both together.

The fact that mine was a photograph added a nice touch, because I obviously had to be doing what the sign was admonishing me not to do. Harry's version is funny too.

Thanks to James.

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

jim: "I understand this when people try to use flash. In most cases the glass over the image will reflect the flash, ruin their photo, and, with accumulated flashes, harm the image being photographed. But when you use only the light the museum has used to illuminate the work, sculpture, antiquity, etc., it makes no sense to me. At all."

Ken Tanaka replies: By way of explanation here are the reasons why museums, by policy or show by show, restrict photography.

1. Rights: Many works on exhibit, particularly special shows, are likely lent by other institutions and individuals who have not (and should not) grant photographic permission for their pieces. Loan documents and conditions can be extremely specific, right down to the maximum foot-candle-hour exposure for artworks.

2. Exhibition experience: Of course flash photography is prohibited at nearly all major art museums. But not generally to protect art work. It's just a pain in the eyes to have flashes firing in a gallery.

3. Flow control: Flow through popular exhibits and museums can slow to a crawl when people are permitted to take snapshots. One person points a camera and five others veer around him/her out of courtesy. This can really screw up managing a time-ticketed entry event.

The Art Institute of Chicago permits non-flash photography throughout the museum except where rights restrictions are involved. We do often have exhibitions where only certain pieces are labeled with photographic restrictions but others are free to shoot. (It makes the guards real happy.)

Bob: "Thanks a lot for introducing me to the cartoons of Harry Bliss. Now I have one more blog to check on a daily basis. You will be happy to know that I have positioned his bookmark directly below yours in my 'Blogs of the Day' folder."

Comments

[Soeren Engelbrecht]

The opening shot in Erwitt's "Museum Watching" is of such a sign. In five languages, no less. To be honest, unless you disturb other watchers, what would be the point ?? Especially in these days of sharing your experiences and recommendations ?? Would it hurt the Ansel Adams show, if the lady in the cartoon told all her friends, what a great time she had ?? The recent Bailey exhibition in London banned all use of phones inside the exhibition, even...

[John Krill]

A friend of mine went to the Annenberg Space for Photography a few years back when it first opened. He was in the building but not yet in any galleries and he started to take photos of the large entrance space and he was told NO Pictures. And there was NO Photos anywhere to photograph.

[Dean Johnston]

Two year ago I attend the CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging photographic trade show in Yokohama, Japan. As well as trying out the then just announced X100s, I also got to see lots of other interesting stuff.

I came away with two very strong impressions. First, I was somewhat stunned by the grace, beauty and utility of the X100s, and second, I was somewhat stunned by the strong "no photographs" stance aggressively plastered all over the booth of a certain major player in modern digital photographic printing.

Impressions do last. Love my X100s...

[Jim Freeman]

On a visit to the Museum of Tobacco at the Duke Homestead in Durham, North Carolina we were greeted by a sign on the door that read, "No Smoking in the Museum of Tobacco".

[Chris Dematté]

If you ever will visit the Helmut Newton Foundation at the House of Photography in Berlin/Germany, don't bother to take a camera with you. Because you have you have overlooked the small pictogramm showing "No photography" the museum attendants will point this fact out in a quite agressive way. And this ban is for the whole interior (not only the exhibitions) which is a pity as the building has an amazing art deco decoration all around...

[tex andrews]

Non flash photography is allowed in many museums, including mine, as long as it's the permanent collection. Traveling shows? Almost never, if not never: rights. BTW, flash photography does degrade things, especially works on paper. That is why light levels are often so low, even too low for photography (see an excellent blog post on this by Jim Kasson from a few years ago), and one must remember that museums are thinking in terms of thousands of visitors and decades of accumulated light exposure, if not centuries.

[jim]

Thanks to Ken for that explanation! I understand its basis and respect that requested right to no photos, I even ask before taking photos in a store- but too often I feel museums just "blanket" everything with a no photography rule.

[HD]

Re: Ken Tenaka's comments. Except, except, except... I've been a repeat visitor in a number of museums over the years, and have watched "photography allowed" policies (subject to particular exhibition requirements of course) migrate to a general "no photography" policy. It doesn't seem that migration towards more restrictive attitudes about photography is due to reasons 1, 2, or 3.

And I can't take photos in the NYC Public Library reading rooms anymore, darn it.