Illegal Shots

IMG_6377.JPG, originally uploaded by drtaxsacto.

When we first started going to Mexico, we found that most museums had two kinds of admissions. The first was for people without cameras. The second was for people with cameras. Usually the entry fee was increased by something in the range of 30 to 50 pesos for entry if you wanted to photograph the inside. You were always urged to not use flash in the inside to protect many of the antiquities.

In the last year or so that seems to have changed. Many museums run by the history commission are now prohibiting inside photos. In the Secret Convent of Santa Monica (in Puebla), for example, you are allowed to take photos in the garden, which is quite pleasant, but not anywhere else. I walked in and took a bunch of photos in the garden and then was followed closely for the rest of the visit to make sure I did not snap any illegal shots. It was almost Chaplanesque, the guard following me at about six paces back. I would move into a room the guard would follow. At one point I moved into a room and then out - almost in a dance with the guard. The photo above is one of the areas where photos were prohibited. (although at this point I had not been informed of the prohibition).

What nonsense. The museums do not have enough revenue to publish slide sets or books on the subjects. Those are common in Europe. So you are left with the option of following the requirements or breaking them. There are plenty of better alternatives - assuming that one of the reasons for these changes is the recognition that too many flash photos will deteriorate especially the paintings.

Museums could lead photo safaris with a guide for an extra fee a couple of times a day. People who wanted to photograph the interiors could go through the museum with a guide who would begin the tour with an explanation of how to use your camera without a flash. Or they could hire a photographer to go through and catch the key sites and then post them to a secure website with a fee attached. But the alternative now seems to deprive the museums of extra income and to encourage photographers to steal a couple of shots.

Interestingly, the policy does not seem to be operational in Mexican church sites. There are some magnificent sites in each city and when visiting a new place, the first place we tend to go is to the churches. It is sad that a bureaucratic approach like this ruins the experience of visiting a museum and deprives the museum of key income to maintain their treasures. Such is the way of bureaucracies.