How Many Likes for Da Vinci? Why It's Fine to Take Pictures in an Art Gallery

While I was studying art history, my tutor once advised the class that when you want to take photos in a gallery, it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Later, when I started working in various galleries, I always felt bad when someone asked whether they could take photographs because I had to tell them no. Advertisement Thankfully, things have loosened up – at least in UK museums and galleries – and personal photography is generally allowed and even encouraged. But have things swung too far in the other direction? This has been a heated topic of debate on social media this past week. Smartphones have made photography accessible to almost everybody, while social media provides somewhere for all those photos to go. As such, the phone has become a significant presence in the gallery, to the annoyance of some. Sign up to the Art Weekly email Read more It’s easy to see why phones can be annoying. They represent a sort of loud carelessness, the idea that someone isn’t really paying attention, isn’t really experiencing the thing that’s in front of them. Sometimes phone use can be outright obnoxious. At a recent exhibition opening, I had to abruptly move myself out of the way of two separate people who were live-streaming their visit on Instagram, seemingly expecting everyone else to move to accommodate them.