Photographic Bugbears

Having worked with one of the biggest collections of photographic slides in the United Kingdom, I am greatly mystified to see people photographing artworks in galleries. My first and most vivid encounter of this was going to Paris a couple of years ago where, at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, visitors frequently jostle for the opportunity to be photographed in front of a Manet or a Cézanne. Strangely enough, it is not the posturing I find problematic; rather the photographing of a work of art in isolation. Since these galleries experience record visitor numbers and are sometimes dimly lit, the opportunity to get a decent shot is fleeting. If it is just the image of the artwork that you want, you are far more likely to obtain a high-quality image on the internet or from an art library.


This practice is surely tied up with the notion of the travel as conspicuous consumption; rooted in history with the Grand Tours of Europe, but expressed through the present-day medium of the point-and-shoot digital camera, rather than sketches and oil studies.