4x5 Contact Print Presentation

[IanBarber]

Recently saw a show of 4x5 Pt/Pd prints in 8 ply mats set in 14 inch square frames. It looked very clean and invited close inspection of each print. I noticed a lot of folks would look, move in close and after moving on - come back to a number of images.
The rectangular images in square frames with all that matboard looked very nice.

Out of interest, can you remember what the subjects were.

[Willie]

Out of interest, can you remember what the subjects were.

They were mainly U.S. images of landmarks like Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Niagara Falls. All well done, no people. Two of civil war battlefields were in foggy conditions. Think they were night exposures - they really had 'feeling' in the image.

I thought the presentation helped with the overall look of the image. Like jewels on display and protected.

[IanBarber]

They were mainly U.S. images of landmarks like Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Niagara Falls. All well done, no people. Two of civil war battlefields were in foggy conditions. Think they were night exposures - they really had 'feeling' in the image.

I thought the presentation helped with the overall look of the image. Like jewels on display and protected.

Excellent, the reason I was curios about the chosen subjects was because with small 4x5 prints, I was wondering if simple subjects would work better thus not creating such a busy image if you know what I mean

[Vaughn]

Excellent, the reason I was curios about the chosen subjects was because with small 4x5 prints, I was wondering if simple subjects would work better thus not creating such a busy image if you know what I mean

While a bit smaller, I have been making platinum prints from 2 1/4" negs. Landscapes mostly -- I found you are correct...one can not depend on detail to grab the viewer -- over-all composition is much more important. Not as much of issue with 4x5 as 120 negs, but still an important consideration.

I use to but old plate holders, dry-mount the 4x5 or 5x7 platinum print to a piece of 4-ply board and mount in the plate holders. Use to buy the holders cheap on eBay. When using plates became popular again, I stopped -- it was okay to use the plate holders when they are not being used to make photographs, but I started to feel guilty "mis-using' essential photo gear for display purposes.

I have also matted several 4x5 prints on a single board wit multuple holes and have shown tow 4x5s together like this (Type 55 film, Ladder, Indian Canyon, Yosemite NP):

[Jim Galli]

Oddball Idea but I used to always pick up antique 5X7 printing frames when they were cheap cheap on Ebay because a 4X5 platinum looks really neat in those little antique frames. No mat, just the paper the platinum is printed on installed in a 5X7 print frame with all the kitschy brush strokes and my numbering system to tell me how many drops of this and that I used on that one. It's like an interpretive presence and they stand alone.