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
............................
--- On Fri, 1/7/11, Daniel and Elizabeth Case <dancase(a)frontiernet.net>
wrote:
From: Daniel and Elizabeth Case <dancase(a)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(a)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
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