[PHOTO] José Picardo on that photo of students using smartphones in the Rijksmuseum

[rfmcdonald]

I blogged in December about how the people criticizing visitors at art galleries who took photographs of the work, even photographs of themselves with the work, were misunderstanding the point. From my perspective, if I am (say) photographing a work, I'm making note of it. If there is a photograph of myself, whether taken by myself or by another, it's meaningful. Encouraging people to make sketches is great, but arbitrarily privileging sketching over photography is senseless.

Just now, my feeds on Facebook and Tumblr have been sharing this essay by José Picardo noting the misunderstanding--unintentional, I hope--of a photo showing children using smartphones at a Dutch art gallery.

Late last year this photograph of children looking at their smartphones by Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’ in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam started doing the rounds on the web. It quickly became viral. It was often accompanied by outraged, dispirited comments such as “a perfect metaphor for our age”, “the end of civilisation” or “a sad picture of our society”.

Clearly, to lots of folk, the photograph epitomised everything that is wrong with young people these days and their ‘addiction’ to technology. These children were being distracted by their technology to such an extent that they weren’t paying any attention to the beauty surrounding them in the real world.

Only they weren’t. It turns out that the Rijksmuseum has an app that, among other things, contains guided tours and further information about the works on display. As part of their visit to the museum, the children, who minutes earlier had admired the art and listened attentively to explanations by expert adults, had been instructed to complete an assignment by their school teachers, using, among other things, the museum’s excellent smartphone app.

I wonder whether the photo would have caused so much indignation and disapproval if it had depicted students ‘ignoring’ the masterpiece while reading a paper leaflet or museum brochure instead. Though I suspect not. It would appear that, once again, reports heralding the death of civilisation at the execrable hands of technology might have been greatly exaggerated.

The same principle applies, people.