Digital BW, The Print

Peter,

I agree with Arlene that signing on the matte or anywhere else other
than the print itself is dumb, but I do it anyway because it is
conventional and it doesn't cost me anything. I also include a printed
notice as evidence of my authorship as part of the print itself,
outside the image area. The one time I signed a print in the image
area, in a gallery while preparing to present the framed piece to a
commissioning client, the gallery's damn silver pen skipped, I botched
my signature and I was and have been mortified to this day, 10 years
later, so I'm rather shy of visibly putting my hand to a finished piece. 

Also, since my autograph is not collectible and I feel no duty to
posterity to suppose that it ever will be, signing the matte seems
harmless and I don't mount my prints in such a way as to expose the
notice/title/signature applied to them - that serves another purpose.

Frank

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Peter Gorwin
<pshelleyg@c...> wrote:
> Well, Arlene, if it's so Dumb, why have some of the greatest 
> photographers in history signed on their mats?
> Sounds to me like you don't go to enough galleries.  Get educated.
> Peter G.
>