Digital BW, The Print

Alan,
>
>I just have to ask - have you ever seen a photograph in a gallery or
>museum framed and matted but not glazed?

This is irrelevant. It is a look that I like (and do others who have seen
them) and hope to be able to achieve ­ I am not bound by precedent. The
question is whether it can be done without (severely) reducing the life
expectancy of the print or incurring decay of the frame materials.  I am
surprised to learn that matting boards are not as archival as I would expect
(and worse yet potentially a delicacy for insects).  However, to answer your
question, I have certainly seen many exhibitions where the images were not
behind glass (I would say this is most common) and also framed without glass
­ I don¹t recall whether they were matted or not.


>I can't believe anyone would pay
>so much for a simple thing like a framed picture.

Are you suggesting the value of a print lies in the glass?

>You need to get someone
>to show you how to cut window mats with simple tools - there are some
>sneaky tricks to it but it isn't THAT hard. Very nice ready-mades frames
>are available everywher in the developed world - mostly made in the less
>developed world :-)

I agree that learning to cut mats should be on my (very long) to do list.
Well ahead of that though is finding a supply of prefab frames that meet my
tastes ­ those that I have seen to date have, in my opinion, looked cheap
but I have yet to search high and low.

>The coated glass is outstanding stuff but costly. If
>you could cut the price of your framing in half maybe that's a way to go.

It would be nice.  I am glad that I don¹t like prints behind glass ­
otherwise it would already be twice as expensive as it is.

>I think if you really like to enjoy prints you should put them in nice
>archival boxes and leave them on the coffee table like a book.

Thanks but I like them on the wall also.



:-)

(BTW, I caution you not to apply the exchange rate to the numbers I have
detailed.  Were you to move to the UK you would quickly learn that to do so
to all prices only leads to constant despair....)



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