This post over on jameswagner highlights a concern I’ve voiced before that I personally find problematic: galleries and museums who still restrict the use of photography (I always take my shots without flash, fyi), who fail to understand that bloggers and other networks of individuals now account for a considerable amount of their publicity and general dialogue that was previously restricted to critics and experts (whatever that means).

But James’s run-in was more unfortunate, with the gallery staff escalating the incident to a verbal altercation and subsequently leaving nasty comments on James’s blog. Tsk tsk.

Other sites that have picked this up and hashed it out in their own words:
Art Fag City says ‘no longer’
bloggy on art bloggers with cameras
Heart as Arena with interesting addendum

I restate my previously mentioned proof of concept:
Flickr search for MoMA versus Flickr search for Cooper-Hewitt – the MoMA has over 80,000 images, taken and uploaded by the public, including masses of their collection; the Cooper-Hewitt has just over 1,500, mostly of the facade and building exterior, because photography inside is not allowed.