I wanted to take some photographs today of children and a puppet (marionettes) theater. I asked the director of the theater sitting unfortunately next to the entrance if they had any limitation on taking photographs of the show (for example not using flash which I would understand) He simply said that taking photographs is not allowed in his theater because of the contracts the have with Suisa. That is the Swiss organization who collects the license fees for the artists from the entry fees of the theater and is in *no way* involved in the decision whether you can take photographs or not. I told him that I would like to ask the artist because it would be free advertising for them as well as for his theater and I would give them prints of the photos for free and send them to the local newspaper. He refused again without a sensible reason. I wished him a nice day and left the theater.
Maybe I was just lucky before. I always got permission to take photographs after some talk and on most events they do not even ask. They assume you are from the press when you carry two cameras, monopod and an impressive flash and are quite self confident. And the actors/musicians/subjects liked it a lot when I sent them prints afterwards. Nothing helps against stupid men.... greetings Markus
