Toronto Photography Meetup Group

At the OCADU graduate open house art show I noticed for the first time no photography signs, the red outline white circle with camera icon with red bar across it, about 7 in total, all of them in the photography department, none elsewhere throughout the school. I've been going almost every year for 20+ years and at this art show there are people taking photographs of all the artwork with all types of cameras and with no subtlety. And it's not just friends or family, I've witnessed numerous people going from exhibit to exhibit snapping away. I thought banning photography would happen years ago, but it was rather ironic to see no photography signs in the photography department!

I attribute it to the ubiquity of photography: my common epithet being - that image you made today, of the 1.3 billion photographs made today around the world about 8,700 are identical to your image, same tomorrow. Therefore, it's valueless, easy and OK to appropriate, copy, steal. The opposite is true of hand made art, given that people are different it's very difficult to create ubiquity when you are responsible for everything within the picture plane.

I may be the only person remaining with the belief it's potentially a good thing to have your creative work ripped off. I know in the photography world every camera owner is eager to scream thief!, lawyer up! but it's an incredible fast track to being noticed elsewhere, in venues or by people you would never think of. It's a difficult process dealing with it, as I had to years ago, but overall it was beneficial years later.

So what do you think, no photography in the photography department, shoot away in the art and print studios.

If I owned a gallery I would be pretty vigilant about allowing people to take photos of the art on the walls. Taking a photo of you and some friends holding some wine at a gallery is one thing, standing in front of the wall and taking a photo of the... photo, or any other type of art is a whole different ballgame. I can't think of one good reason for this practice to be allowed. If you want to show the work to a prospective buyer or friend, you can always get a card or other info from the gallery owner. If you are a member of the media, you ask.

I was speaking with a gallery owner that I know at (Kinsman Robinson gallery Yorkville) a while back, And the reason gallery owners are vigilant in enforcing this is that
the images of gallery quality art are uploaded to "image farms" in China and elsewhere and then mass produced as unlicensed product for the global market.
Thieves don't give a SH*T about copyright or royalties.
Numerous galleries in Yorkville have told me that they ask people to leave their galleries every week due to this practice.

It's not generally an accepted practice... these days, although tons of people try to do it. I have had my images snapped, and always found it weird, or flattering... I wasn't really sure which way to go.

I saw a woman do this at a Starbucks, where there was an image on the wall that a local photographer had up and she took the time to take the perfect photo of it. "Why contact the artist when I can take pic and print it at home?" This must be the thought process.

For a gallery I completely agree, no cameras allowed.