Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I just want to add I take photos all the time and never ask.

Get this alot in central London. People selling handmade stuff in Covent Garden and Camden and that, but they all put up signs saying 'No Photography, Please'. This woman obviously had issues, and had no right to come up to you, it was none of her business. I say, unless you see a sign saying not to, photograph away.

I work with artists and am one. In general, I think it's more polite to ask, especially if they're right there! (But, I take sneak pics in museums all the time!) I think the idea, especially in a setting like that, is that by taking the picture you're enjoying the piece for free and likely to post it somewhere without giving them credit. At the gallery we'd always welcome people to take pictures but request that the artist and the gallery be linked to if they posted it on a blog or facebook or whatever. But, that lady seems like she's probably had a bad experience and was going a bit overboard.

Sounds like she piped up about something that wasn't really her concern. It's up to each artist to decide if they have a "no photos" policy or not.

I personally don't like people taking photos of my work, mainly from a quality control perspective - I don't like people uploading awful, blurry, murky images of my work. I also am not too happy about people uploading high-res photos or scans of my work & do address that in my copyright policy. I guess each artist has their own view on how they like to handle it.

She was a total bisque about it so don't feel bad at all, but to echo other thoughts in this thread, I don't think it's the most respectful thing to take photos. Not because you had any intention of using them for your own gain in any way whatsoever, but simply because everyone now has easy access to stolen art on the internet. My boyfriend has had to (politely) ask people to refrain from taking photos of his art at public events/fairs, and it is really just for posterity with regards to his career, and not because he has this self-important stance that leaves him horrified by passive appreciation of his work.

But that lady is out of line. It wasn't in her place to "represent" the other artists, and it hurts the artists since it made you feel shamed and turned off from the whole event, which would theoretically result in lower sales.

Heh, i'm pretty over it since it's been 18 months.

Haha. Oops.

Oh well, it might be an old thread, but it's still useful info, right?