Photographing in Museums

WNYC News reported (Taking Pictures in Museums, 11 October) that its art critic Deborah Solomon, defending the museum visitors photographing works of art, claims that although “some people think cameras corrupt our experience of art,” they actually enhance it.  She is quoted as saying that "When we look through a camera we frame space, and we look more deeply, and in that sense looking through a camera teaches us how to look without a camera, to paraphrase the photographer Dotothea Lange,” and “Photographs of art can contribute enormously to visual literacy in this country, and I look forward to a day when every high school student knows the difference between a Pollock and a de Kooning and a Rembrandt.”  Some 100 people who commented spoke either in favor of visitors photographing or else noted that they make nuisance for other visitors who don’t photograph. I beg to differ vehemently and wrote this comment:

Photographers disturb others in the museum, but this is a secondary problem. Works of art are not just configurations that the camera captures; other characteristics -- the size and scale, texture, brushwork, and subtleties of palette, nature of the medium, and certain details -- are lost in reproductions, and seeing original works in their totality is the reason for going to a museum. Deborah Solomon missed this point. In this digital age, reproductions of renowned museum pictures are available on line (in addition to those in numerous publications), and they are perfect for studying the composition and iconography of essential works at home and make privately photographed images redundant. I propose banning cameras entirely in all museums of art to encourage visitors to take time to look and see the works instead of just glancing at them.  People who are serious about art should learn to see patiently and intensely.  As Yogi Berra has it, “You can observe a lot by watching.” I argue that museums should also discontinue the use of audio guides because they induce visitors to listen instead of watching; it is better to provide notes in newsprint; they tend to make the visitors check the picture phrase by phrase as they read.