Goodness Gracious but I seem to be putting out a lot of grumpy posts lately.
Museums and many "collections" make the money to allow them to be open at all from public donations, a tax stipend, or ticket sales. All of these come out of the public pocket. Those who will not allow a member of that public to take their own pictures without paying the high prices of a "professional" strike me as a bit "dog in the manger" types (sorry Bjarne, it's one of the Aesop tales - I'm sure it's familiar to you with different wording). When I took pictures in the Museum of Munich of the various garments on display the only thing that they required is that I not utilize a tripod or a flash. The guard in each room asked me to demonstrate that I had the flash "off" before I could take pictures in his room. That way the pieces were not being exposed to any more light than they ever were. I had two cameras with me. One was a regular Pentax camera with 1600 ASA film, but no flash attachment (he seemed to be a bit puzzled by that, I'm not sure he'd seen a film camera before) and a 5Megabyte Sony (?). I knew how to turn the flash on and off, something that too many idiot tourists didn't, or couldn't see why THEY should be restricted by such rules. Something I doubt that any on this list would give them a hassle about. My non flash pictures with the film camera came out better than I could actually see the items, which were kept in fairly dim rooms. I know that someone is going to point out that the money the museum earns from photographic reprints is a large part of their budget. This is all very well, but the pictures and other works of art and history are not THEIRS. They are caring for them for the people. Well, I'm one of the people too! If it weren't for me and people like me the items would be used to cover cabbages to keep them from frost. Civil Servant (I'm One) does not equate to Civil Master. The things in museums are financed with your money! Therefore it is not unreasonable for you to be allowed to photograph an item very carefully so that possibly hundreds of people could share your information and not just the few that manage to come through "their museum" every year! On the other hand I have been able to make arrangements with museums and libraries in Germany and England and have them fall all over themselves to help me get exactly what I wanted and allowed me to distribute as many copies as I wanted (free, of course) as long as I mentioned them, and gave their address. Wanda > > Hi, > Yes you are right, i went to the museums website and they do have a > photographer there, but i would have to pay him, and that would be > expensive. Perhaps i could travel to Gotland for the same money. > I got the > feeling that the museum would not mind me photographing the stays. > These stays are some of the most beautifull i have seen, very plain, but > beautifull craftmanship. Grey linnen with blue tiny tapes at the > seams. And > besides this is very unusual dated from 1760-80 because it has a > boatshaped > neckline, with tied shoulderstraps off the shoulders. > I have ben thinking i would send Ian the staymaker a copy of the > photo from > the book, because it is so beautifull. > > Bjarne > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
