No Photography Allowed!
01.03.2010 : Kirsty Kelso
We declare an amnesty on your sneaky photographs!
Ever taken a sneaky pic of Modern Art Oxford? Or snapped yourself at one of our events? We want to show as many visitors’ pictures here as possible in our on-line gallery.
The ‘no photography’ sign used to be the first thing visitors saw when they visited Modern Art Oxford. With a building full of new and, often, little-seen artwork, we have to control any kind of reproductions. But when it came to looking for imagery to form an on-line gallery, the on-line photo-sharing site, Flickr was a good place to look. Browsing Flickr, we discovered more than 500 photos taken by visitors to Modern Art Oxford in recent years – and secretly we were very pleased. What perfect material for an on-line gallery! Favourite exhibitions to be photographed include the Stella Vine exhibition from July 2007 and Daniel Buren’s window-like installations from December 2007.
We have asked anyone who has ever posted a snap of Modern Art Oxford on Flickr to join a new group: ‘No Photography Allowed’. We'd like you to join too! If you want to share your photographs, past and present, please join the ‘No Photography Allowed’ Flickr group and post up your snaps.
But, a word of warning, we have no plans to revoke the ‘no photography’ rule after we reopen on 17 April, and we will be keeping an eye out on Flickr, just in case...
No Photography Allowed...
Thank you for posting up your sneaky pics! Keep posting your illicit, or behind-the-scenes Gallery images to our Flickr Group.
Hello Paul. Thanks for your comments.
Totally take your point about the crackdown on snapping in the street. Not allowing photography in galleries is a historical thing really. The emerging culture, as far as galleries are concerned, is much more about engagement and this is what our Flickr campaign is about.
Read what others have said on this topic here:
http://www.flickr.com/.../
Kirsty Kelso
12/03/2010
This is kind of hypocritical isn't it?
In Germany people pay 1-3 euros to use cameras, everyone is happy. In any case, how could a
photographer capture the essence of an installation piece? There is no risk.
Seeking then to involve Flickr ... that great repository of stolen copyright content from artists ... seems like hypocrisy to me. Lens based artists are under attack on the streets and indoors, it would be nice to have arts institutions support them rather than join in with the emerging culture of prohibition and copyright theft.
Paul Freeman
09/03/2010