Rebel with a lens

forbidden photo, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

They didn't allow photography in this exhibit at the Hirshhorn, so this photo is a bit taboo. Since the guy specialized in some large-format, super-detailed images, I guess I can understand that you might want to protect the images from forgeries ... but it still really hacks me off.

Museums and galleries are rich, rich environments for artists to work from, to draw from, to imitate, and to recreate. There's something inherently interesting in the juxtaposition of art and viewer, or the appreciation of art from the many ways it can be displayed. I stumbled onto this in photographing sculpture, but that is most likely just because of my interest in representing 3-D forms in photos. Given that photography has long incorporated existing art — especially the art of the masses, advertising — in unintended and unexpected ways into new works, the caution seems especially dubious. Restricting photographs from a photography exhibit is like restricting charcoal and notepads from a Picasso exhibit, and if I'm ever lucky enough to have my own gallery show, photography will be encouraged.

There are probably considerations I'm not aware of, especially on the legal or business sides of art, but it seems to me that photography restrictions are a silly precaution that negatively affects orders of magnitude more viewers and supporters of art than those who want to abuse the privelege.

(Also, Kriston, do you happen to remember the name of this photography exhibit? It was the one by the Japanese photog who also took long exposures of drive-in movie theaters. I've lost the show brochure I picked up.)

UPDATE: This guy has some blurry photos from the exhibit that I'm not sure how he snuck — there were security guards all over the place when I was there — that give you an idea of a few of the interesting photographic possibilities at this exhibit alone.

UPDATE II: The photographer is Hiroshi Sugimoto. Thanks, Joel.