Wednesday 31 August 2011

denkmale, denmรคler

Wikipedia for the next month is hosting a photography competition and open call for submissions for pictures of monuments and memorials in Germany and across Europe. The project has garnered a lot of interest and I am sure will add more depth to the catalogue of wonders that Wikipedia has. We have collected a lot of snapshots over the years and I am going through albums to see what I can find to contribute. Oddly enough, there’s one glaring omission in who can take part, since Italy has recognizes no provisions for freedom of panorama (Panoramafreiheit) that allows for taking pictures of works of art on public display and publishing them with no risk of infringement.
I had heard of tourists being bullied for taking pictures in London--for reasons of national security, and of the veiling of Michaelangelo’s and da Vinci’s statues along the promenade of Florenz from casual photography. Such gaps in documentation, should they spread into copy-fight, I’m sure, encourage in a round-about way more people to see such sites in person and patch these holes.