Inspiring The New Yorker?
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I wrote a story for the City section of the New York Times recently about people taking photographs of paintings in museums and galleries.
The story focused on MoMA and opened with a scene of people photographing paintings by Jackson Pollock.
Last week I was amazed (and a little proud) to see this cover on the latest issue of the New Yorker.
I love how perfectly it captures the irony of people in art galleries spending longer with their eyes fixed on digital screens than on the paintings themselves. And is that abstract impressionist painting a nod towards Pollock?
I have no idea whether the cover was inspired by my story. A New Yorker cover a few weeks back featured two Egyptian mummies posing for a photograph in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur, so photography in museums is hardly uncharted New Yorker territory.
Besides, the article was hardly my idea. It was inspired by Times editor Kaly Soto who had seen people taking photographs of paintings while she was visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art one weekend and who passed the story along to me.
Nevertheless, I do love the thought that Kaly’s experience inspired my story which in turn possibly inspired a New Yorker cover—a sort of chain reaction of ideas that sprung from an insight she had one weekend.
4 Comments
May 1st, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I’ve just taken a photo of this post and am currently telling a writer about it.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I was actually really surprised when that started happening. Some museums allow it, others don’t. I was at the Met this weekend though and one girl was actually taking pics with the flash ON which eventually ruins the painting. Though people looked at her, no guard came around to ask her to turn the flash off – though a lot of people were yelled at for having their cell phones ringing.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:13 am
I google my sister’s name sometimes on the off chance I’ll hear about her and her fabulous life in NYC from sources other than e-mails phone calls. You see, we grew up in a small town in Oregon and New York is Mecca for me. Kaly Soto is my older sister. And I believe that on my last trip to visit her, she took me to MoMA and I was dazzled and star-struck. The reason I bring this up is that she made the same observation to me. And I somehow feel, that if we’re talking inspiration, here, I may have been part of the source that so inspired you.
Here’s hoping.
Nice post, by the way.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
You were indeed, Megan. And thank you. Now all we have to do is find out if anyone was inspired by the New Yorker cover and, if so, what they created.
By the way, since I wrote the story I can’t help feeling guilty (and a little bit hypocritical) every time I go to a museum or gallery and whip out my camera.