Shawn,

Yes, there are good reasons to forbid repeated exposure to flash photography
in an exhibit or gallery setting.  You don't want 1000 visitors per day
popping flashes at the same objects.  Also, in the days of flashbulbs, there
was always the risk that a flashbulb might explode, showering glass shards.
This is certainly a good rule for museum visitors.  But you asked about the
staff photographing and/or scanning collection objects, presumably in a
controlled setting, and that's the difference.  A single, 1/1000 of a second
blast from an electronic flash is definitely safer than ten minutes under hot
floodlights, and many museum photographers, on the advice of conservators,
have been doing it that way for decades.  Although I'm not a conservator
myself, I'm a photographic historian and have done a lot of flash photography
with 19th-century photographs, so I have some knowledge in this area.

I can try to find a supporting reference for you if you still don't believe
me, but it will have to wait a day or two.

David Haberstich

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