By the way, I just found some photos of the Prado Museum on the internet. I guess they were taken when photos were still allowed.

http://www.jorgetutor.com/spain/madrid/museodelprado2/museodelprado.htm

http://www.feelmadrid.com/pradomuseum.html

Some people do not get it when it comes to photography in art museums.

Some photographers will shoot the artwork; others will photograph the "people" interacting with the art. Some people want a photograph postcard of them standing next to art. Like Las Meninas and if that makes them happy, let them enjoy themselves.

Some art museums like the Paris’s Orsay, Louve, the museum itself are a piece of architectural art that is a joy to photograph. If you been in those museums you understand what I am talking about. The Guggenheim Art Museum in New York City has a policy of no photography of their art collect but they do permit anyone with a camera to walk in museum entrance, the bottom floor to photography the inside of this world famous art museum because the Guggenheim understands the building itself is art.

If you look at the link Estopa1 posted FeelMadrid.com, the photographs and information about the Prado just might get average nobody not familar with Spanish art to visit the Prado.

Look a Prado's website it is boring. :yuck:

If I was visiting Madrid for the first time which website would get me excited? That would be FeelMadrid.com.

That is all being made off limits and too bad for photographers in those countries. :yuck:

Bill

Wow!! I even found a video of the Prado!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYN3u3bjibI

Bill from NYC - have to differ with your last comments - and I'm also a photographer -

I concur with your comments that people interacting with art make for great photos - but people also interact with statues outside where photographing them interacting with the art (of course using discretion!!!!) is acceptable - just not museums ....

i am for one not wishing to photograph works of art like paintings and such. they deteriote with time and it cost the museum a bundle to fix renovate later.
also if i like the art i can buy postcards to show my friends and come back to the museum to see them again and again; love it planning being in madrid again this summer!!! suavemente!!!

Yep....I understand why we have to protect the Art. But I am still very sad. There is nothing better than taking a photo someplace and remembering that moment always. I don't know if everyone feels that way, but when I take a photogragh of someplace, I totally can feel that moment years later. I remember standing there, debating the shot, who I was with, and my mood. I have so many great shots inside museums...never using flash of course. Nonetheless, this is the way it will be and of course I will respect the rules.

Gretchen6

Nicely said.

Bill

Yes, but there are probably an equal number of people who think that there is nothing better than calling up a friend on a cell phone and telling them all about what they are doing or looking at--no matter where they are. And I think most of us can agree that this is obnoxious. Well, a lot of us feel the same way about photos in museums.

The thing is, the purpose of museums isn't to go to them and take photos. Or to go to them and call up a friend and tell them about what you are looking at. The purpose of museums is to preserve art for future generations and create an environment in which are can be viewed by as many people as possible in a relatively tranquil environment.

If too many people are taking videos or photographs, it detracts from the very purpose of museums. Especially in a very busy museum like the Prado.

Should we should starting kicking out tour groups which ruin the tranquil environment? I doubt very much art museum will give up this cash cow.

When the museum is crowded with people, it is not tranquil and you a searching for a spot to look at something without someone blocking you view.

Most of the people that visit museums are there on a once in a lifetime visits and I think the people that regularly visit should tolerate them. They are not there to do any harm to anyone or any artwork.

If they want to talk, shoot photos or carry their crying baby while walking through museum, it is ok with me. If they only go to an art museum to only see a the Mona Lisa, David in Florence or Prado’s Las Meninas and skip the rest of the art in the museum that is find with me.

My first visit in Prado I spend 5-6 hours shooting photos and must have been the biggest pain in the butt to everyone. I even had security worry because I was shooting photos of a plastic grey card holding it next to the paintings and sculptures. But I never saw one angry face at me. Sometime when I was shooting a photo a person would walk in the photo and then apologized. Or I told them thank you when they politely did not.

Give it another ten years and these silly no photo restrictions will be reversed. Cameras are getting smaller, more powerful and eventually flash will not be needed to take photos.

Bill

> They are not there to do any harm to anyone or any artwork.

I a very avid museum goer and I have seen flashes go off dozens of times at major museums that allow photos.

Everyone makes mistakes and this can harm the artwork. I've also been at the Prado many, many times when it was very crowded and have gotten elbowed by people jockeying for position to photograph. Or had trouble seeing the artwork because people were holding cameras over their heads trying to take a picture. It's particularly bad around Las Meninas and El jardin de las delicias--and several times I've seen the guards at the Prado crack down on people who were photographing incessantly because it was so disruptive to the others around them.

Restricting tour groups is comparing apples to oranges, my argument wasn't to restrict the access that people have to museums, rather to return to the real purposes of museums--which really isn't to provide a photo opportunity.