I am usually not a big fan of taking photos in a museum. This was again confirmed last weekend, when I visited Museum Voorlinden in the Netherlands. This museum encourages visitors to take photos and even allows visitors to bring their big DSLR into the museum. Every artwork was therefore heavily photographed.

What is everybody doing with those photos? Isn’t that the reason why you go to a museum?

Eventually I couldn’t resist and used my phone to shoot some images (I didn’t bring my camera to the museum). The first artwork I took was a picture of a beautiful sculpture made by Antony Gormley. The 3D artwork turned into a 2D artwork on my phone. It didn’t look anywhere as spectacular on my phone as it did in real life.

In my opinion, such photos doesn’t do justice to the artwork. However, this changed when I took a photo of a painting made by Wayne Thiebaud. It looked great on the photo.

But again: now what? I have two photos and don’t really know what to do with them. I could print these photos and hang them in my living room, but that doesn’t feel good. Next time, I think I will just enjoy the art in a museum without bothering to take photos.

What do you think: is it OK to take photos in a museum? Have you ever taken photos in a museum and if so what have you done with these pictures?