SF MOMA's Director of Visitor Relations Has Vistor/Blogger Physically Ejected

"Simon Blint, Director of Visitor Relations at the SFMOMA is a first rate asshole."

And so begins Bay Area photographer and blogger Thomas Hawk's most recent entry about being physically thrown out of SF MOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) for having the unmitigated gall to snap this image within the touristy downtown museum. It seems SF MOMA has, or had, a strict no-photography policy. Hawk goes on to say that said ban was recently lifted.

Hawks says :

After purchasing my family membership and visiting the museum today I was forcibly thrown out of the museum by two museum security guards at the direction of the Director of Visitor Relations Simon Blint.

My crime? Taking a photograph from the second floor stairs in the SF MOMA's atrium (an area where the SF MOMA's own website explicitly says photography is allowed).

Hawk talked to Blint who (allegedly) told him ""he did not care" and that he needed to "protect" his employees -- employees that might appear in my photographs." Hawk goes on to say, "I was not shooting with a tripod. I was not shooting with a flash." (An aside: Oh, and be sure to send SFist your many, many, many photos taken from inside SFMOMA. Tag them in your Flickr account with "sfist," or simply send them here.)

Was Blint, in fact, being an asshole? Was Hawk putting up a pissy fight, which led to his ejection? We don't know yet. But we think banning of any type of photography is inane, especially if you work in the arts.

But what say you? Should photographers be subject to this kind of harassment? Or does Blint deserve a serious tongue lashing?

Image: thomashawk.com