I went to the V&A last week and took photos of everything I could, which I really should upload some time sooner rather than later. In fact, I want a better camera for low light just to do the V&A.
Their photo policy is "feel free", just don't use a flash and don't be a nuisance. There are a limited number of exhibitions they ask for no photography in (there's the Design in China one at the moment, for example), but mostly you can take pics of anything.
So - apart from those of you with cameras that are good in low light photographing every damn thing to be found in the entire V&A ...
1. Do we have a list of photographer-friendly museums?
2. (the biggie) How do we thank V&A for their openness? And how do we do it in such a way as to encourage *other* museums to open their collections up to free content photography? I'm thinking talking to them and working out a joint press release.
Has anyone here gone hogwild with a camera in UK museums? Do please tell!
- d.
On 27/03/2008, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
So - apart from those of you with cameras that are good in low light photographing every damn thing to be found in the entire V&A ...
- Do we have a list of photographer-friendly museums?
The Ashmolean in Oxford has the single most honest photography policy I've ever seen in a museum or art gallery - they're happy for you to take photographs, though I think they restrict flashes, *except* for about 10% (?) of the displayed artworks, where they have a discreet little sign next to them asking you to please not photograph.
(These are things like, eg, the interesting Turners; stuff where reproduction rights are actually worth a reasonable sum of money; I suspect one or two may be loaned stock where this is part of the agreement.)
Their interests are served - they keep control of the ones which mean an income stream for them - but they try not to make it overly affect the visitor.
On 27/03/2008, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
I went to the V&A last week and took photos of everything I could, which I really should upload some time sooner rather than later. In fact, I want a better camera for low light just to do the V&A.
Their photo policy is "feel free", just don't use a flash and don't be a nuisance. There are a limited number of exhibitions they ask for no photography in (there's the Design in China one at the moment, for example), but mostly you can take pics of anything.
So - apart from those of you with cameras that are good in low light photographing every damn thing to be found in the entire V&A ...
The next generation of high end point and shoots may include an increasing number of low light features (well they will if the manufacturers decide that 12 mega pixels is enough for now).
- Do we have a list of photographer-friendly museums?
The various national museums (science museum, Natural history museum, Fort nelson etc)
Pit rivers (although the light levels there mean that you may not be able to do very much)
Never run across issues with English heritage
County museums vary
The biggest problem from our POV is the national trust. Not only do you need permission to take photos but their permission system suffers from being over centralised with the result that the closest description they can get to the average wikipedian photographer appears to be freelance. In cases like this to make working through the system worthwhile you would really need a group of people looking to take photos.
Generally transport museums seem to be photographer friendly, on several occasions I've taken loads of photos at the National Railway Museum in York and the London Transport Museum Depot in Acton (some of both are on Commons, the rest will appear at some point when I've got around to sorting them. Don't hold your breath).
The Museum In The Docklands (near Canary Wharf) were also fine with photography iirc, but there wasn't much there that would photograph that well.
Chris
On 28/03/2008, Chris McKenna cmckenna@sucs.org wrote:
The Museum In The Docklands (near Canary Wharf) were also fine with photography iirc, but there wasn't much there that would photograph that well.
The things themselves, the available angles or the amount of light? (The V&A keeps the light *really* low on the old stuff. A lot of it is in cabinets where the only light it gets is when someone actually takes it out to look at it.) Any DSLR with even the kit lens will be small enough not to be a damn nuisance but have enough of a light bucket on the front tcope with low light.
- d.
On Fri, 28 Mar 2008, David Gerard wrote:
On 28/03/2008, Chris McKenna cmckenna@sucs.org wrote:
The Museum In The Docklands (near Canary Wharf) were also fine with photography iirc, but there wasn't much there that would photograph that well.
The things themselves, the available angles or the amount of light? (The V&A keeps the light *really* low on the old stuff. A lot of it is in cabinets where the only light it gets is when someone actually takes it out to look at it.) Any DSLR with even the kit lens will be small enough not to be a damn nuisance but have enough of a light bucket on the front tcope with low light.
- d.
The things themselves - the majority of the museum is text displays with a few reconstructed models and few actual artifacts. Light levels wouldn't have been a problem there.
Chris
On 28/03/2008, Chris McKenna cmckenna@sucs.org wrote:
Generally transport museums seem to be photographer friendly, on several occasions I've taken loads of photos at the National Railway Museum in York and the London Transport Museum Depot in Acton (some of both are on Commons, the rest will appear at some point when I've got around to sorting them. Don't hold your breath).
The Imperial War Museum is pretty good, though the light levels leave something to be desired.
Their photo policy is "feel free", just don't use a flash and don't be a nuisance.
But what are you allowed to do with the photos afterwards? If it's really old stuff, then it's presumably PD and no problem (in the vast majority of cases, at least), but if they have any newer things are you allowed to distribute the photos?
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