How to Photograph Art Without Losing the Experience
A phone camera can preserve a visit, but it rarely preserves the full force of standing before a work. That tension sits at the center of a new guide to photographing artworks, which gathers advice from five photographers and artists on how to make images that do more than simply record what was on the wall.
The piece begins with a familiar scene: visitors lifting their phones in galleries, trying to hold onto an encounter that will soon be over. But the real question is not whether to photograph art. It is what, exactly, a photograph can carry forward — scale, texture, context, memory, or some combination of all four.
Mohamed Hassan says he approaches art photography as a way of preserving the moment a work interrupts him. Rather than aiming for a neutral reproduction, he looks for the quality that made him stop in the first place. He notes that smaller works can intensify that response, since they require viewers to move closer and enter a more private relationship with the object.
Ed Templeton, who works across painting, photography, and drawing, uses his phone differently. He treats it as a tool for study, especially when he wants to understand how another painter handled brushwork or materials. His instinct is often to get as close as museum guards will allow, turning the image into a practical reference rather than a souvenir.
The article also argues for wider framing when the work depends on its surroundings. Alexandra Gordienko, founder of MARFA Journal, points to Lisa Brice’s 2023 exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ in Bury Street, where a cropped image could have made the room look like any other white cube. A broader view, by contrast, shows how sparsely the work occupied the space and how much that emptiness shaped the experience.
That concern with what a phone cannot hold continues with Martha Naranjo Sandoval, who notes that some details visible in prints may not appear in photographs taken on a phone. The implication is subtle but important: the camera can sharpen attention, yet it can also miss the very thing that made the work memorable.
The result is less a set of rules than a way of looking. Photograph the detail that stopped you. Step back when the room matters. Use the image as a record, a study, or a reminder — but not as a substitute for the encounter itself.
