Equipped with the camera extender known as a selfie stick, occasionally referred to as “the wand of narcissism,” tourists can now reach for flattering selfies wherever they go.
Art museums have watched this development nervously, fearing damage to their collections or to visitors, as users swing their slicks with abandon. Now they are taking action. One by one, museums across the United States have been imposing bans on using selfie sticks for photographs inside galleries (adding them to existing rules on umbrellas, backpacks and tripods), yet another example of how controlling crowding has become part of the museum mission.
The Mirshhom Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington prohibited the sticks this month, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston plans to impose a ban. In New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has been studying the matter for some time, has just decided that it will forbid selfie slicks, too. New signs will be posted soon.
“From now on ,you will be asked quietly to put it away,” said Sree Sreenivasan, the chief digital officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “It’s one thing to take a picture at arm’s length, but when it is three times arm’s length, you are invading someone else’s personal space.”
The personal space of other visitors is just one problem. The artwork is another. “We do not want to have to put all the art under glass,” said Deborah Ziska, the chief of public information at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which has been quietly enforcing a ban on selfie sticks, but is in the process of adding it formally to its printed guidelines for visitors.
Last but not least is the threat to the camera operator, intent on capturing the perfect shot and oblivious to the surroundings. “If people are not paying attention in the Temple of Dendur, they can end up in the water with the crocodile sculpture,” Mr. Sreenivasan said. “We have so many balconies you could fall from, and stairs you can trip on.”
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Thursday, Jasmine Adaos, a selfie-stick user from Chile, expressed dismay. “It’s just another product,” she said. “When you have a regular camera, it’s the same thing. I don’t see the problem if you’re careful.” But Hai Lin student from Shandong, China, conceded that the museum might have a point. “You can hit people when they’re passing by,” she said.