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Thread: Question regarding displaying photographs

  1. #11
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    Quote Originally Posted by Deane Johnson View Post
    I have only used standard acrylic for framing and displaying b&w prints since the 1970's. I feel the green tint of glass ruins a b&w print.
    There are a few reasonably priced alternatives that don't have the green tint.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  2. #12
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    Real glass might be OK in the Southwest where the humidity is generally quite low, but
    here on the coast it's voodoo. Temperature and humidity fluctuations are prone to
    condensation and mildew behind the glass, especially if the print is heated up during the day with displaying lighting, then cools down at night. Silver gelating prints and
    many types of color photographs are, as implied, based on gelatin, which is a favorite
    microbe food sourse. Acrylic is a far better insulator. In the tropics, any kind of overglazing can be an issue, unless it's a climate controlled vault or something like that.

  3. #13
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    Hmmm, define coast. I have been in a number of pretty well known photographers and a couple of collectors houses in California-San Diego, Sacramento, LA, San Francisco and they all used glass.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  4. #14
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    Humidity swings are pretty relentless on the East coast too, and I've never had condensation behind glass. I had a cd player blow up in the middle of the night from condensation. but nothing yet that effected photos.

  5. #15
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    Doesn't just have to mean "coast". A old-time swamp cooler in a poorly ventilated otherwise dry climate could do it. This is common sense. But it's also enough of an issue that building codes are changing over much of the country in order to eliminate microbe food and the potential for mold in ordinary things like drywall. Gelatin is ground zero. But "foxing" on older non-gelatin prints is extremely common too, whether from storage or display conditions. I've seen entire collections destroyed on the So.Cal coast, and that's a reasonably dry area, and no humid like parts of the South and East. With dye transfer printing, we routinely mix antifungals into the dye, in part to preserve these in the liquid state, in part for permanence of the gelatin itself. Most residences aren't museums, and unless I know the display circumstances, I avoid glass. I've seen plenty of pemeable art substrates like watercolor painting ruined by
    mold too (the pigments often contain fungicides, but the paper doesn't). Optically coated glass sure looks nice, and won't bow like acrylic, and isn't as obscenely expensive as coated acrylic, but besides the riskof breakage, condensation is a real risk, especially on perimeter walls of older bldgs which are poorly insulated. A nice thick window mat or other form of air spacer certainly helps, besides looking nice.

  6. #16
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    Hmmm....I've had silver gelatin prints hanging in my swamp cooled house for like 40 years and no sign of mold.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  7. #17
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    Think what you want, Kirk. Take your chances. I offer glass as an option, but ask questions first. Insulation, ventilation, climate, nature of the heating/cooling cycle.
    Commercial galleries can be absolutely the worst in certain cases. They cook the prints
    with hot halogens during the day then let the building go cold at night. I've seen a couple of owners of really expensive galleries get the skin sued off them, when someone's irreplaceable collection got ruined.

  8. #18

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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    Recently I removed glass from a large collection of gelatin silver prints (not mine). The glass was placed over the prints as early as 1948, and the majority during the 1950's. Twenty of the prints were from an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1949. This collection had been stored under varying weather conditions, Bay Area, garage, damp houses and shipped out of state by railway.

    The glass was taped directly to the mount board without benefit of an overmat. What I had envisioned was the gelatin adhering to the glass, and the demise of some truly wonderful images. However,what I discovered, much to my delight, were perfectly preserved pristine prints. Some of the prints are now in museum collections. By the way, all were drymounted.

    I report this as a personal experience, not suggesting it as an approved method for the presentation or preservation of gelatin silver prints. The glass did have a green cast, but this can be anticipated and overcome when printing. My preference is acrylic with an overmat.

  9. #19
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    The folks at places like the Oakland Museum really have it complicated, where they're
    trying to preserve valuable 19th Century photos which might have been stored under
    all kinds of potential conditions. The effects of mildew are visible on many of these older prints. I have so many damn prints of my own that I can't rightly be called a collector myself, though I have acquired a number of very interesting albumen prints,
    cyanotypes, and so forth, and have numerous tintypes, ambrotypes, daguerr., and
    older silver prints too. The prints which spent most of their history stored drier mtn or desert climates tend to be in much better condition than the coastal ones. Sometimes
    the old silver gelatin prints which were improperly fixed have acquired an interesting
    kind of variable discoloration or fading, reminiscent of split toning. I've had a few local
    art dealer clients over the years, some intelligent, some idiots, who have attempted to
    builtd storage facilities. I prefer wire racks for the print boxes, so air can freely circulate. The dumbest guy (ironically with the most pricey downtown gallery) cussed
    at me and listened to a marble conservator in London instead: so he sealed his cheapo
    particle board shelves with a marble consolidant containing even more formaldehyde.
    This was for a considerable collection of pre-emulsion paper negative prints, including
    a number of Talbot originals which he sold for obscene sums. A few months later, as
    collectors started reopening their expensive portfolio boxes only to see blank discolored
    pieces of paper with no images, he was really starting to sweat and phone lawyers.

  10. #20
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Re: Question regarding displaying photographs

    The only issue I have seen over the years from long term storage of framed prints, both with glass and acrylic (acrylic from prints I shipped to shows and got back), is some kind of small bug that apparently is attracted to the gelatin and tries to crawl in to eat the print but doesn't make it-the space is too tight and dies between the mat and glass/acrylic. I have never seen any print damage but have had to replace a couple of discolored window mats because of this.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

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