Strong light is a serious problem for museum curators because light can damage pigments. In many sections of the Metropolitan Museum, for instance in the section with Sung Dynasty paintings, the light is so dim that it makes seeing many paintings difficult. Strong light can damage both pigment and the support (paper or silk for Sung paintings), so the only option to dim lighting is not to exhibit the painting at all. I would NOT recommend using flash in any section of a museum where the light is dim.

Light not normally a problem with stone or bronze sculpture, or ceramics. So there harm from flash is not likely a problem.

It is allowed to upload to Commons copies made from museum web pages of out of copyright two dimensional work. The same applies to copies from books. If the image is a faithful reproduction of a two dimensional work, that is out of copyright, it can be uploaded to Commons with this template: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-art

That does not apply to three dimensional art because camera angle decisions, and lighting decisions, by the photographer are considered creative judgments. The photographs themselves are then considered protected by copyright law and can not be uploaded without permission to Commons. (Unless, of course, they are old photos and out of copyright.)

Malcolm Schosha

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--- On Fri, 1/7/11, Daniel and Elizabeth Case dancase@frontiernet.net wrote:

From: Daniel and Elizabeth Case dancase@frontiernet.net Subject: Re: [Wikimedia NYC] Free-culture-compliant GLAM awards was: Museum of Art and Design lifts photo ban To: "New York City Wikimedians" wikimedia_nyc@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Friday, January 7, 2011, 5:18 PM

I'm no curator or professional photographer, but I had the impression that one argument against photography in museums was the damage that frequent exposure to intense light could cause.

I've always gotten the impression that that was less of an issue than they let on, more of an excuse to prevent competing quality photos of the work from being created so they can sell more postcards in the gift shop.   Daniel Case -----Inline Attachment Follows-----

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