Monday, March 23, 2009

Jumping for Photography in the Galleries!


MF Staff - Jumping for Joy
We're jumping for joy about photography in the galleries!

For many years here at the MF, we've enforced a pretty strict "no photography in the galleries" policy. This policy was primarily due to the fact that many of the artworks we show deal with light. It would be a complete bummer to be appreciating Danäe, by James Turrell, only to have the experience ruined by someone behind you shooting the room with a flash. But in the age of cameraphones and 10Mp point-and-click's, having a "No Photography" policy seems to us to be a bit out-of-date. We'll continue to enforce a "no flash" policy in light-based pieces, but the majority of our installations are now open for photography!

Naturally, we're all very excited about this change. So excited, in fact, that we're jumping for joy!

So what's the use in allowing photography in the galleries without having some cool things to do with the photos? Currently, there are a few ways to share your photos with other MF visitors. The first happens while you're here with us at the museum, via the MF SCREENtxt project, which allows you to send photos & text messages from your mobile phone to a 42" flat-screen TV hanging in the museum lobby.

And after you've visited, you can upload your MF photos to Flickr and share them in the Mattress Factory Group Pool. This is a great way to share your MF experience with past and future museum vistors!

We're really looking forward to seeing your MF photos!

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Jeffrey POSTED BY JEFFREY
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3 comments:

Adam Trowbridge said...

This is a terrible change. Tourists with cameras, impatiently waiting on people to move out of the shot so they can get a picture of themselves, are a bane to the enjoyment of anything. Please reconsider this policy. I nearly got into a fistfight during Niki de Saint Phalle show in Chicago because a "photographer" wanted to evict my son and I from a piece so he could take a picture of his wife in front of it.

Unknown said...

YAY! Thank you for rocking, MF! Cute photo.

Anonymous said...

Many museums are making this same decision but I do see Adam's point about photographers feeling they have the right to disrupt someone's gallery experience but I have to say that is just an inconsiderate person and not a personality trait of a "photographer". My museum made the decision because the guards were spending too much energy asking people not to photograph things, rather than focusing on actually paying attention to the art and how people were interacting with it. You can only compete with technology so much...