I’m not usually in the business of telling you not to do things.
Follow your dreams, put babies on spikes, whatever. We’re only here on this planet for so long, there is no God, all is permitted. We make all this stuff up, you know? Human freedom, duty, etc. None of it is real. We’re just trying to paper over the cavernous void that waits for us all.
Do not take cell phone pictures of Van Gogh paintings in busy museums.
I’m not going to tell you not to take cell phone pictures of ART in museums, full stop. I could see scenarios where that was acceptable. Maybe the museum is not even remotely crowded, and you’re the only people in that gallery, and your mom is all “take a picture of me in front of the Andy Warhol soup cans.” Go for it. I bless this undertaking. I can see that! A picture which has you or someone else in it, reminding you of an experience you shared. That’s a thing, maybe you could take a picture of that.
Or maybe it’s a super-obscure painting that can’t be Google image-searched, and you fell in love with it, and you want to hold it against your face while you’re sleeping, and you can’t draw. That’s maybe a possible thing.
But there’s something about being at MoMA, and being really excited because your father has never been to NYC before and never seen “The Starry Night” in person, even though he went to the Netherlands to the actual Van Gogh Museum, and even though he’s sat through “Vincent and the Doctor,” and is a Van Gogh mega-fan (reasonably), and then you get in there and it’s just a fucking sea of people taking pictures with their smartphones, and, like, two assholes in expensive Italian designer jeans using their iPads, so they’re blocking out more space then their own HEADS to impede your view of the actual painting. And then giving you looks when you enter the shot!
Look. It’s right there!
Look. It’s in the gift shop. Seriously. If a painting is famous enough to be in the gift shop, it does not need to be on your phone.
Look. If you are an impoverished art lover who cannot buy a print, you can go to a public library, use the free internet, and right-click and save a picture of “The Starry Night” and email it to yourself, because you appear to have a smartphone anyway, so this is an unnecessary step, and have it always and sleep with it next to your face. But you don’t need to do that, because it’s right there on the internet whenever you want it.
It’s unacceptable. It is unacceptable to conduct yourself this way in public. Every single one of your ancestors is ashamed of you for doing this.
(Okay, I thought of one more caveat, because I am Canadian and do not want to judge anyone unfairly: perhaps you have been assigned the task of looking at a bunch of paintings by an educational professional, who wants photo evidence of your visit. That would also be okay.)
I am actually incensed by this. It is shockingly rude. It is boorish. It is also stupid and pointless. Look at the art. Look closely, get out of the way, let someone else look at the art. Do not block people by holding up your rude arms.
You know how they handle the Crown Jewels in London? They have a little conveyer belt. A really slow conveyer belt, and you stand on it, and it slowly moves you past the jewels so you can see them but don’t have the ability to be a fucking monster about it. It’s kind of amazing. It works! I’m not even sure how Moriarty stole them, because that is not how it is set up.
Maybe those are different Crown Jewels they just keep in a big box in the middle of the room. I digress.
Do you know how hard it was for me to tell you not to do something? If you saw the meta-data on this post, you’d see it was first “Do Not Take Cell Phone Pictures in Museums,” and then it was “Do Not Take Cell Phone Pictures of Art in Museums,” and then it was “Do Not Take Cell Phone Pictures of Art in Busy Museums,” and then it finally arrived at its current defanged state.
So, please do not do this tiny little obscure distilled thing, which is a true evil, is what I’m saying.
And “The Starry Night” is truly lovely in person.
Tags: art, basic human decency, etiquette, museums, smartphones, vincent van gogh
I love Van Gogh, and I saw the Van Gogh collection at the Musee D’Orsay on a relatively quiet Wednesday and it was so easy to just walk through and pause and look at each and every one of them without hindrance. No one was taking pictures with their phones, no one was loud, no one was rude. Maybe something had blessed the museum that day?
Anyway, it was perfect, and I completely agree, and also would add PLEASE for the love of God DO NOT TOUCH STATUES MORE THAN A MILLENNIUM OLDER THAN YOU.
Unless you are Regina Spektor.
(okay, not even then, but I LOVE THIS SONG)
Last time I was at a museum, I thought for sure if the statues don’t have signs you can touch them, so OBVIOUSLY I did, and a security guard was next to me and yelled “ARE YOU KIDDING ME, I’M STANDING RIGHT HERE” but I was pregnant, so I smiled sheepishly and she laughed because pregnant women are irresistible. GOOD STORY RIGHT.
That’s REALLY funny. I am dying of that security guard’s sarcasm now.
I would have licked it… but then again, that’s just me.
It’s because Musee D’Orsay is the most perfect museum in the world! I feel like all the tourists are over at the Louvre being suckers, so the Orsay stays empty and quiet and amazing all the time. I wish I was there right now. Always. Forever.
Musee D’Orsay is incredible. My most transcendent museum experiences are Tate Modern, Orsay, the one-off German Expressionism exhibit at MoMA, and any visit to the Gardner in Boston.
I feel the same way. I had been to the Louvre a couple days before, and not to knock the Louvre too much, because there’s obviously an insane amount of beautiful and important art there, but our visit there was a disaster. The Musee D’Orsay was like stepping into an oasis. Everything quiet and peaceful and perfect.
And I am going to Boston in October to visit my best friend and we will Gardner, yes.
Gardner is my FAVORITE place in Boston. Also check out the American Wing in the MFA!
And if you’re super into the Gardner, there is an amazing piece by Sophie Calle in the Modern wing at the MFA about the stolen Manet.
The Gardner is the best! I have a friend who works there and I get in for free when I visit, so I get to wander by myself and at my leisure. I also have dreams about the Gardner in the spring when the nasturtiums hang from the windows in the court yard.
wonderful! you probably already know, but if you get a ticket to one of their (excellent) sunday music concerts, it also includes free entry to the rest of the museum for the rest of the day (a really nice deal & day!)
Nicole, thank you!
I work at MoMA, and it is maddening to see the people lined up with their cell phones taking pictures and yet not looking at the painting at all. Damn it, people, look at the painting, not your cell phone screen! It would be absolutely hopeless to ban photograph, though. It’s already not allowed in special exhibitions– usually due to lender agreements– and the guards telling people to put away their cameras and phones is a Sisyphean task (and distracts them from making sure people don’t touch the stuff, which happens ridiculously frequently.)
And… I worked on that German Expressionism show at MoMA as well. It’s fabulous to hear you have such great memories of it. I’m biased of course, but I thought it was great, but it wasn’t a blockbuster. MoMA also a web site focused specifically on German Expressionism if you want to relive any of the works, plus the 3,400+ things that wouldn’t fit in the show. The photography, too, on the site is amazing: you can zoom in super close and really see the paper fibers, ink, or paint.
really enjoyed that German Expressionism show; a big thank you for your work from an anonymous viewer out there!
Well, there goes my month.
No, you should have this said to you clearly: I think about how good that show was very, very regularly, and it was both emotionally and visually powerful and brilliantly curated and when I am mayor it will be on permanent display and everyone will be required to see it once a year and then have an in-depth conversation with me about it.
Thank you!!!! I am passing this along to the curator, too. And, I will happily talk about the show or any of the artists with you, anytime.
PS, I really like the little map feature (again, full disclosure, I wrote all the stuff for that part), but I love maps so it was combining two of my favorite things: http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/maps/ge… http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/maps/we…
I wish that were true. I’ve been there when it was quiet and peaceful, but I’ve also been there a few times when there were obnoxious tourists galore (people taking photos with iPads, high school literally pointing and laughing at paintings they found funny). The Louvre is so huge that there’s almost always a section with plenty of room to breathe. Even if that section is sometimes tiny Dutch landscapes of grass.
Ugh, every time I’m in a museum I want to touch everything SO BAD.
I don’t, though, for I was not born in a barn.
That’s one of the fun things about Italy -since they’re very blasé about their Old Stuff it’s all just out in the open, so if you feel like it you can just touch some (very unhygienic) History at any time.
And that’s why all their shit is falling apart and crumbling into dust. 🙁 Italy isn’t more enlightened about artwork touching, they just don’t give a shit or don’t have the resources to take care of their cultural heritage.
That’s true, and tragic.
I love the Musee D’Orsay, but I definitely saw people this summer walk up to paintings, take a picture of the painting and placard and walk away. They spent ZERO time actually looking at the painting! What is the point, you barely know what you took a picture of!
Also regarding that museum: my family is French and my grandmother was a great lover of Impressionist paintings, so she took us to the Musee D’Orsay when I was 10. My brother, 9, always a fan of modern art, declared that the paintings there were “a bunch of turds,” thus totally scandalizing my grandmother.
There seems to be a common thought now that experiences do not count if they are not recorded via photo or social media. This is very get-off-my-lawn-ish on my part, but I do not understand it. Life is best viewed through the eyes (and then brain after a long series of important-but-complicated nerve-and-brain maneuvers), not through the screen of a phone.
Kids these days, etc. I need a nap.
I think I read an article about how viewing though a lens cuts you off from the experience of whats in front of you, which sort of explains how war photographers operate.
Maybe kids of the future will only be able to comprehend things once it’s been uploaded to their brains?
I feel that way too, which is why I hardly ever take pictures. The only period of my life that I have a lot of pictures of is when I was married to my ex, who took pictures all the time. I regret not having more pictures, but I just don’t like being disconnected. It’s like putting on a pair of gloves every time you want to touch something.
That is one of the best analogies I’ve ever heard (and I think about it a lot, since part of my job is trying to get people to look at art, not just at the labels on the wall or their phones.)
Man this is one of the reasons I am really really anti-Google Glass and will probably be trying to get them legally banned from places where I am if it looks like they’re likely to take off. Google Glass and taking-pictures-of-everything-with-smartphones means you are objectifying everything and everyone around you, AND I HATE IT.
Have you read Susan Sontag’s “Regarding the Pain of Others”? It’s brilliant (which, duh), but it talks a lot about this particular phenomenon, and also its corollary in the viewer, which is that if a war photo is too well composed, you start to doubt that it’s real.
Louis CK has a great bit on this phenomenon at school plays featuring your own damn child.
my dad had a family vacation rule, as The Camera Guy – he would take a specified number of photos, so you had Better Pick Well (especially since this was film-era). He would not spend the Whole Vacation behind the lens, as he did that once and felt like he watched the family trip on video instead of actually going there.
Agreed, although there is something to be said for all of these photos and videos helping to make memories last.
I think there’s something about the act of recording that people find important. I mean, yeah, obviously for most people these photos are just going to languish in unviewed facebook albums until the internet is replaced by whatever is going to come next, but there’s something about that transcription that people seem to find meaningful, or think should be meaningful. I suppose you could chalk it up to the rise of both globalization and social media, which cause people to want to create this little reccord of their life that says I was here. These are the things I did that mattered, or that I’m supposed to think are important
I’m not saying this a right or good impetus, but I can see how people arrive there. But yeah, don’t take photos in a crowded museum.
I saw The National for the first time the other night. Matt Berninger came into the audience during Mr. November, as he does. He was right near us. And EVERYONE was holding their damn cell phones up. He was surrounded by a cage of rude arms and glowing screens. Why don’t you realize what you are doing, people? You are NOT LOOKING AT THE EXCITING SINGER MAN THREE FEET IN FRONT OF YOU WITH YOUR ACTUAL EYES. You are instead choosing to view him distractedly, through a screen, as you fiddle with the settings and the record button.
Mr. Theory got an amazing series of photos on the Fourth of July of fireworks viewed through the screens of other people’s upstretched phones. Aah is taking pictures of other people taking pictures of things that should be experienced unfiltered more or less annoying than the original act?
I do NOT understand why people bother taking photos at concerts. There’s a 100% chance it’s going to come out terrible! And if they’re even remotely successful, there are already plenty of professional photos available of this person! What does yours add to your life or the world?
I feel really lucky to have had a great, cranky old professor who refused to be photographed on a college study abroad trip 13 years ago. He implored all of us on the trip to LOOK at things and SEE things and stop taking so many damn pictures! I took a ton of photos anyway, but I rarely look at those (and since I was a 21-year-old crap photographer with a point and shoot camera, the images don’t do justice to what I was trying to capture). Thanks to my professor, though, I did look and see and make memories. And now that I’m older and wiser and crankier, I understand that professor better and don’t take that many photos.
I may or may not have been in fights with people who take videos of entire concerts. Your favorite song, maybe sure whatever. Every. GD. Song. while you stand in the middle of a group of dancing/swaying/moving people, like an unmovable mountain in a sea? Did you pay money for this show or not? Do you want to maybe enjoy it while you’re here?
I am more passionate about concerts than I am art, but what you describe here would surely incense me as well, even as a beginner art viewer.
Also, concert recordings made on your damn phone are guara-damn-teed to be super shitty. Like, blurry heads, some random lights, crowd noise, and in the background maybe some music that you can just about make out. Concert Recording Guy, are you really, truly going to watch that shitass video?
Nicole, you are justified in this post and virtuous in your quest. Do not apologize for pointing out BASIC MANNERS.
This vaguely reminds me, did anyone here read Anil Dash’s “Shushers” article?
More importantly, have you read Choire’s response? http://www.theawl.com/2013/08/man-you-are-a-racis…
I actually lol’d, which is a rarity for me.
Anil Dash is furiously drafting an article about how people who won’t allow him to wipe his own ass with priceless art are basically neonazis.
UGH that article makes me so mad. “Why can’t I just act the way I want whenever I want to? You’re impinging on my rights if you don’t let me do what I want!”
Fuck you. You’re in a privately owned property. There are rules of conduct within that property. If you can follow those rules, come on in. If you can’t follow those rules, GTFO and go to another private property with rules you like better. THIS IS NOT COMPLICATED.
My boyfriend has an annoying tendency to repeat lines he finds funny immediately after they’re spoken, which often means he talks over the next line.
Your boyfriend is my #1 most hated person at the theater.
“He just said Madam if you were my wife I would drink it!”
YES I KNOW IT HAPPENED TWO SECONDS AGO AND THE AUDIO QUALITY WAS EXCELLENT.
Runner-up is the person who asks questions that no one knows the answer to.
“Why is he looking through the desk?”
I DON’T KNOW MAYBE IF WE ALL SHUT UP AND PAY ATTENTION WE CAN FIND OUT TOGETHER.
I agree with everything you said there.
At least when I watch stuff at home with him I have the opportunity to rewind. And I always complain loudly about how I missed the next part to make him feel bad for doing it. It doesn’t change his behavior, though.
Oh my god my mom is BOTH those people.
My mom has the tendency to say the phrase, “There it is” whenever the title of a movie or tv show is said. It’s so annoying. Now my husband loves doing it to piss me off.
This, but also if you have to take picures TURN YOUR FLASH OFF FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. You and a million other jerks like you accidentally leaving the flash on on your cameras and phones are responsible for the degradation of classic, irreplaceable works of art.
And for the love of Batman do NOT touch anything unless there is signage explicitly telling you you can/should.
I used to work in a historic house, and our rule was no flash photography. Some guides just said “no photos” because even in a group of only 10 visitors, there would always be someone who didn’t turn their flash off. Most of the time because they didn’t know how. So my tour introduction ended up including the usual exhortations to not touch (didn’t stop people from leaning on furniture, and one dude from picking up the iron) and other preservation things (no gum, etc) as well as the offer to teach them how to turn their flash off. A lot of people took me up on it.
I saw more than one tourist in the Louvre taking VIDEO of the statues. Like they’d hold the camera and then slowly wind their way around the statue.
Unless this was for some kind of 3D art project I cannot possibly imagine the value of this activity.
I went to MoMA for the first time recently and there were people taking cell phone pictures of the video art. It’s video art! It is, by definition, not a static image! Why are you taking pictures of that! (In additional to all the people Nicole is referring to, who were also annoying.)
Oh, fuck me, I did do this, though, but I was pregnant and in the picture and it was really funny:
http://lazybookreviews.tumblr.com/post/4533359371…
Don’t even listen to me anymore. Do what you want. Lick the security guards’ eyeballs and put it on Vine.
At least you’re in the picture? Also I think maybe there wasn’t much of a crowd around that one.
yeah, this seems like it fits in all of your caveats, and is generally awesome.
ahahaha I love that picture, don’t ever apologize for it.
Totally fucking agree. When I went to The Louvre and decided to check out the Mona Lisa, it was fucking ridiculous. First of all, the painting is TINY. They have it covered by this protective box thing, then there’s a railing that keeps people ten feet away, and there was an honest to god sea of people and cell phones. That’s all. When I finally wormed my way to the front, I was so agitated and wholly unimpressed because there’s no way to simply gaze and enjoy a painting in that environment. Do not want. Look and leave, people.
Yeah but the trick is, the best paintings the Louvre has are in the same hall ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Arcimboldo ) and everyone ignores them, so just look at those and forget the tiny Mona Lisa, which about the size of a postage stamp anyway.
OMG! Another Arcimboldo person! Love that crazy crazy mixed-up kid and his art. I have a print of Autumn which has followed me from apt to apt.
OH MY GOD, for real.
Oh my god I LOVE you right now, I’ve been trying to track down the name of a painting I saw at the National Gallery of Art, and as soon as I looked at his Wikipedia page I knew it was him.
Don’t you want to hang this in your guest room though and then people would politely decline to stay over at your house and you would never have to vacuum again: http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/art-…
That’s good to know, because I really want to go to the Louvre someday but I have absolutely no desire to see the Mona Lisa.
You should check out the Centre Pompidou if you like more modern stuff, it’s really something. Probably my favorite museum but I’m really into early 20th century avant garde stuff.
I would definitely like that museum! But alas, I won’t be able to afford a trip to Paris anytime soon. Hopefully I will remember if and when that day comes.
You just get me, toast. Related, and makes me equally as angry: someone takes a photo of their smiling friend standing in front of the art, and the friend stands with the back of their head and shoulders ACTUALLY TOUCHING the painting.
Also: the person explaining some minute detail of a painting, and for some reason needs to point their finger sooooo close, if not actually touching. Use your fucking words. Even if it is under glass, it shows a massive disrespect.
Less related, but still: people ordering at sandwich counters with a glass barrier, instead of using their words to say “I’d like tomatoes, lettuce, pickles”, they have to drum their stupid greasy fingers against the glass to point out each individual topping while they say it. The person on the other side can’t even see what you’re pointing at, and somebody has to clean that gross glass up later.
I work in an ice cream shop, and people lean over to grab spoons, cups, cones, to THROW OUT their USED, DIRTY SPOON, in my CUP OF CLEAN TASTER SPOONS (there is no reason to think that was trash! There is an empty bucket right next to you that says “TRASH”! the counter is taller than me, why would I keep the only trash can back here!). I had a dude laugh at me once because I got pissed off at him for grabbing cups to tell me which size he wants; sorry dude but I do NOT want your grubby fucking hands on clean shit that I have to scrub my hands down to touch.
Ahhhh, no, the oils! THE OILS!
YES. And there is a special place in hell for people who put their greasy fingers on other people’s computer screens.
Ok, but some of us are pointers because we are both soft spoken and very self-conscious about the possibility of mispronouncing something. I can point, or I can hold up the line by repeating myself three times and then getting the wrong thing anyway.
My sandwich complaint is more about loudmouths with no self awareness, of which you seem to be neither! You’re fine; keep up the good work.
On the bright side, at least with smartphones they can take the photo and then move on. Imagine if this were the 1800s and they were all standing around trying to DRAW the photo for an hour instead.
I was fortunate enough to go to the Louvre when I was 14 and saw this painting that I absolutely loved but by the time we got home I completely forgot everything about the painting. So, sometimes I take photos of paintings just so I can remember what they were and find them later. I highly doubt anyone will have that problem with Starry Night though, so I’m with you there. I only take the pictures in empty rooms.
Also, I went to the Met a couple of months ago alone and it was glorious. I only want to go to museums alone from now on. I got to decide what was worth my time and what wasn’t and the eavesdropping/people watching was so much easier.
I do the same! I take a picture of the painting and the placard next to it so I can research it later. If I really love it and it’s a museum I frequent, I’ll also make note of where in the gallery it is for future visits (plus I get to feel really fancy when I say things like “Oh I noticed the Peale painting is gone. Have you moved it?”).
Why in the world anyone would just straight up take a picture of the Mona Lisa is beyond me. There are lovely prints and postcards that were taken by professional photographers available in the gift shop and that’s what they’re there for!
yes, I am that person too! I take flashless photos of paintings that I know I won’t be easily able to find reproductions of (some of the art I like is a bit obscure and isn’t on the interwebs). I would prefer buying museum postcard reproductions, but museums have dialed way down on making those in favor or selling random crap in their giftstores (now I get to be the cranky old person!!), so sometimes it feels like you don’t really have a choice. The motivation is: I may have traveled really far to get here, and some paintings I want to be able to see again and make part of my mental life.
But yes, I would never ever block people’s view of a painting to take my photo, and certainly never photograph a painting like Starry Night that is a. ubiquitous and b. all about texture and brushstrokes as much as about color/composition, so it’s really not going to come out well on camera, in addition to making you look like an idiot/asshole because reproductions are available everywhere.
I for one would actually really enjoy a regular series of telling people what not to do. Don’t stand to the left on an escalator. Don’t chew and smack your gum loudly on public transit. For the love of god, turn down your iPod because I can hear your music at the other end of a packed subway car. Maybe I’m just a grump?
Have you tried slate.com?
Try this: http://www.slate.com/search.html?q=stop
Don’t text/check email while walking! You are not that important!
Use complete sentences when placing your food order, don’t just bark out the names of the items you want like a toddler.
LICK ALL THE ART
yummmmmm http://www.texturepalace.com/gallery/oil/120303/4…
Maurice Sendak agreed. http://bobulate.com/post/1189026655/once-a-little…
A) Moriarty is clearly a changeling. Clearly.
B) Let’s all watch “Vincent and the Doctor” today, instead of working.
I cry too much. IT’S NOT REAL. Bill Nighy is an ACTOR.
I spent the last few years working at the Asian Art Museum here in San Francisco and I cannot even tell you the frisson of excitement that ran up my spine when I got to put on my most righteous face and tell everybody to STOP TOUCHING ALL THE GODDAMN ART because that vase? that vase in front of you? It is 6,000 fucking years old! When Jesus was born, that thing had been around for 4,000 years! In fact, the distance between now and the birth of Jesus is the distance between the creation of this vase and the construction of the fucking pyramids so why don’t you take your greasy mitts off of it because you are not so important you utter failure. aaaaahhhh
I recently visited the Grand Canyon, and while I took a few pictures, I felt like a doofus doing it. There are already billions of pictures of that canyon, including many by professions. I have a shitty cell phone camera and no particular skills, why am I bothering?
This article really speaks to me. I was gently shoo-ed away from a Van Gogh by security because I was getting pretty close to putting my face on it…
I want to put my face against all the paintings. All the art, really.
This: “so you […] don’t have the ability to be a fucking monster about it”? Needs to be a whole series of prescriptive posts to make the world a calmer and more orderly place. How Not to Be a Fucking Monster About Everything, Really.
So, if a restaurant has a dish available, you should not try to copy the dish at home? Or because someone has written a book on a subject, no further studies of the subject should be done?
Where do you draw the line, on “if it’s available via some other means, don’t do it yourself”?
It sounds like someone did something to piss you off taking a picture, like they blocked your view, or otherwise created a minor inconvenience, and this “article” is your passive aggressive response. And like most passive aggressive responses, it is over blown and misdirected.
Personally, I enjoy taking pictures in museums, though I usually try to get pictures of people interacting with the art, and I find your article, frankly, asinine. Take a chill pill and relax. People taking pictures (as long as their flash is off) hurts no one and nothing.
Take…a chill pill? Hmm. What a marvelous English sentence. What are these chill pills you speak of? Do you find them at the pharmacy and then try and compound them yourself, guessing at the ingredients, one of which is self-aggrandizing pomposity?
I wish all museums had conveyor belts! One of my Formative Moments as an 8-year-old was getting separated from my family at the Tower of London, deciding (after a brief waiting period) to do it on my own, skipping all the boring bits, and riding the conveyor belt past the crown jewels approx. 4 times.
And I agree: smartphones and museums are a terrible combo, unless it involves statuary and permissable touching.
I work as an intern and docent at a small museum, and there’s a large 19th-century painted chest right near the entrance to the main gallery. I’ve caught people multiple times LIFTING UP THE LID to look inside (which, btw, is empty.) Shouldn’t the assumption be, unless there is a note otherwise, to NOT TOUCH? There’s no rope or anything around it…but still..you’re in a MUSEUM.
Recently at MOMA I was unable to even approach “Starry Night” because about 15-20 people were standing in front, shooting cell phone pictures. I gave up and looked at the Kurt Schwitters/Man Ray/Marcel Duchamp stuff, which nobody cared about but was way better.
When I was at MOMA in the room with the Campbell’s Soup paintings, I basically gave up and took photos of all the people shooting cellphone pictures.
(And of the fellow wearing a ferocious red sweater who was posing next to one of them that he happened to perfectly match both in red hue and in area of bright red, because that was legitimately awesome.)
I take pictures of the placards so I can re-find paintings/pieces of art that I really love and don’t know how to find again. Sometimes I take a picture of the piece itself, if I don’t think I’ll remember which title and artist goes with which piece. But only for a quick second, only when the gallery is empty, and then I gaze gaze gaaaaaze with my real lyfe eyes.
Have you read Susan Sontag's "Regarding the Pain of Others"? It's brilliant (which, duh), but it talks a lot about this particular phenomenon, and also its corollary in the viewer, which is that if a war photo is too well composed, you start to doubt that it's real.
My mom has the tendency to say the phrase, "There it is" whenever the title of a movie or tv show is said. It's so annoying. Now my husband loves doing it to piss me off.
Yes. This. Thank you.
I just got back from vacation in Europe. In Vienna so many people ran up to paintings in the Albertina and the Belvedere and snapped cell phone photos and then immediately ran away that it took all my self-control to not snap at them and point out that they hadn’t, in fact, actually LOOKED at the painting on display.
Next time I’m just going to print this out and hand it out.