Major tourist sites such as the Louvre should consider blocking out certain times of day for periods of no phone or camera use.
Winston Aldworth enjoys taking photos as much as the next snap-happy modern traveller. But he says things are getting out of hand.
Few things are as memorable as the first time you see the Mona Lisa. After winding your way through the many halls and galleries of the Louvre, finally the weary traveller reaches the painting hailed by many as the pinnacle of Western art.
And that first glimpse - the first
encounter with Leonardo da Vinci's crowning achievement - comes ... via the screen of some tourist's phone. Hordes mass around the painting, holding their phones aloft like a high-tech offering to an ancient lord.
In fact, the first glimpse a modern-day visitor to the Mona Lisa will see of the great painting is, in all likelihood, an image on someone else's phone showing a whole lot of other people's phones. The screens held aloft at the back of the throng are simply capturing the image on those screens further forward.
Those at the back wait for their turn to shuffle forward and ruin the photo for someone else. Peering out, somewhere beyond them all, the real thing is smirking at us.
