New-school exhibit print mounting advice

[Frank Petronio]

I haven't had an exhibit in 15 years. But back in the day I made nice 11x14 to 20x24 selenium-toned, fiber prints, which I overmatted and framed using archival materials in a very standard fashion.

I now need to create two approximately 30x40 (inches) inkjet prints for a fairly decent regional show. They are too large for the traditional mat and frame treatment, at least as far as I can handle doing in my workshop.

Yes, it you can't make it good, make it bigger! And I admit, I want to do larger prints to better my chances of getting attention.

And, I don't want to spend tons of money on prints that probably won't sell for what I think they are worth. But I would spend at least $300 per per print, with a third of that going for output from a local 9800. Leaving about ~$200 for framing and presentation.

My local framer is a friend and he can mount 30x40s in an archival mat with generous borders, into a simple wooden frame, staying within my budget. Both the 9800 output and framing are discounted prices.

But that might not be the best way to display my two large images against lots of smaller images? Especially since these are of younger, alternative subjects.

I haven't tried face mounting or any of the cool new techniques. I did mount some early Iris prints to sheets of aluminum, but I had a hard time resolving how to hang a large, thin sheet of aluminum with showing hardware. And like face-mounted Plexi, the aluminum is subject to abrasion and dings during normal handling (especially when I am not there to handle it.)

In fact, I haven't seen a good "New School" way to display (and protect) a 30x40 inkjet. Any suggestions?

What would a German art photographer do?

What would Chris do?

What would Tim do?

thanks

[julian]

I'm not Tim or Chris, but I've just done a 1m x 2m print for a client. I had the printed bonded to aluminium with a mounting block to hang the frame. I then had the aluminium plus print put into a normal wooden frame with the glass mounted off the print by about an inch. This method keeps the print flat, and protects the print with the glass in the normal way that frames protect a print. The only difference from a traditional method is you don't use a matte and the print is stuck to aluminium (or dibond)

[Edwin Lachica]

I've recently sold a 70cmx100cm print mounted on 1mm aluminum with aluminum profiles glued at the back for hanging it on the wall. profiles were on four side ("U" aluminum profiles stuck at the back like a small frame about 30% smaller than the print). It cost me around US$ 102.-. I didn't have it coated with UV Anti-Scratch since my client didn't want any but I suggest you do it for your prints if you want to go this route.

Btw, I'm based in switzerland, not Deutschland but close.

Cheers, Edwin.

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

A german art photographer would problably go to a lab in Dusseldorf called
GRIEGER http://www.grieger-online.de/ an have them make a huge DIASEC print.

[Bruce Schultz]

What substance or material do you use to bond a print to aluminum. What thickness of aluminum is best and can you buy if from any metal supply shop?

[Edwin Lachica]

What substance or material do you use to bond a print to aluminum. What thickness of aluminum is best and can you buy if from any metal supply shop?

Im my area around 1mm thick aluminum. I have no idea what they use to bond my prints to aluminum but my best guess is permanent cold mounting sheets. I never did ask what they use.

[Mark Sampson]

Frank, what "fairly large regional show" are you talking about?

[Frank Petronio]

The Finger Lakes at the MAG

[Bruce Watson]

I now need to create two approximately 30x40 (inches) inkjet prints for a fairly decent regional show. They are too large for the traditional mat and frame treatment, at least as far as I can handle doing in my workshop.

Easy. Think outside the darkroom box. Print on canvas, varnish it, and stretch it onto stretcher bars using a "gallery wrap." If you do this you may want to print a black boarder around the print a bit wider than the thickness of the stretcher bars. This covers the sides and helps isolate the image from the wall. After you are happy with the stretching, sign the print on top of the varnish using a pigment paint marker (i.e. DecoColor)

Hang it as is -- no frame. If someone buys it, they can frame it like they would an oil painting, or my favorite -- a "floater frame." But you don't have to deal with it -- let a frame shop handle that.

There are some really nice canvases out there designed just for inkjet printing of photographs. Smoother ones for details, more texture for portraits, etc...

Have fun with it.

[chris jordan]

Hi Frank, I don't know if this would feel appropriate for you, but I'll tell you my favorite way of displaying prints, which I have used for all of my shows lately. It is simple, inexpensive, informal, and beautiful: simply have the print mounted on 1/2" gator board and show it with nothing on the surface. They can put foam blocks on the back to hold the print off the wall, and simple hanging hardware, all for about a hundred bucks per print for that size.

The nice thing about that approach is that the print is held right there in front of the viewer, with nothing in the way-- no plexi, no glass, no laminate, just the print, which gives it a vivid feel that really contrasts with prints that are framed behind glass or plexi. The new generation of Crane Museo and Hahne Silver Rag papers looks gorgeous displayed that way.

For an even nicer look, you can have the mounted piece framed, with no glass, which adds a nice finish to the edges of the gator board. I use a simple maple box frame, either painted matte black or whitewashed, with a profile that stands 1.5" off the wall, and covers only 1/2" of the print.

When I display prints this way, I leave a 4" white border around the image (with 4.5" on the bottom for weight), which has the same visual effect as a mat, but it's cleaner and doesn't attract dust like an exposed mat would. I also find that it looks really nice to print a very slight off-white shade onto the white paper border, so that the highlights in the print look slightly brighter than the border. My color of choice for that is an ivory color, with RGB values of 247,247,239. Once it is done, the paper border still looks white, but the image has a subtle glow from the brighter whites. Of course you can also make it a color-neutral tone that takes the border from pure dazzling white down to a soft natural white like a mat would be.

You also can ask the framer to allow space for glass to be added later, so the print can be protected when it ends up permanently on a wall somewhere later.

I think you can get all of that done for $200 each. If maple frames are to expensive, a Neilsen brushed aluminum frame would achieve the same effect less expensively. My preference for those is to use a box profile such as the Neilsen #22, in brushed silver.

Congrats on the exhibition and good luck.

~cj