Yesterday, I visited London. Along with some bookshops, I visited the Tates Britain and Modern - galleries I've visited before, but never been able to explore as much as I'd have liked - and the Courtauld Gallery - somewhere I've been meaning to visit for a while.
In the two Tate galleries, I noticed a number of other visitors taking photos, often quite prolifically. It's something I find irritating, without being entirely sure why. It doesn't particularly interfere with my viewing, at least no more than the behaviour of other visitors; and, although much of the work in Tate Modern is still covered by copyright law, the gallery staff didn't seem overly concerned, so why should I be?
In Tate Britain, I finally got to see Millais' Ophelia, which wasn't on display the last time I visited. While I was stood near to this painting, another visitor walked over to it, took a photo with her tablet and then moved on to the next painting she wanted to photograph. Was this her only experience of the paintings, viewing them on the screen of her tablet? I don't know.
I can understand why people take photos to remind them of where they've been, but it seems that for some gallery viewers, the only way they feel they can enjoy the experience is through the small screen of a tablet or digital camera.
This reminds me of Kate Bush's plea to her fans not to film her recent comeback gigs, but it also reminds me of a painting on the wall opposite Ophelia, Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott. The painting is based on Tennyson's poem of the same name. The poem describes a 'lady' forced by an unspecified curse to stay in a tower weaving. Because of the curse, she is only able to watch the world reflected in a mirror. Is this what we are becoming, people only able to appreciate the world through a small digital screen?
Perhaps I'm being a bit airy-fairy about it, but it does seem to make the act of visiting a gallery redundant. If you want to look at images of paintings, there are places they can be seen online. Surely, to visit a gallery is to admit that there is more to experiencing visual art than just looking at the pictures - an act that can now be done anywhere.
