Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Mark Savoia
<mark@c...> wrote:
> I just had a customer bring in a stretched canvas done with Cone's  
> selenium inkset with portfolio black in December of last year and the  
> top 1/3 has gone brown. I would like to blame it on sunlight hitting  
> the top 1/3 of the image but even the black parts that are stretched  
> around back have gone brown. Part of the problem is the image has  
> been traveling to different galleries so no idea what the viewing  
> conditions were. It came back packed in bubble wrap and a cardboard  
> box (well packed) but certainly not archival packaging. I would like  
> to blame the packaging, but why is only 1/3 of it effected?

Wild guess, the printer ran out of one of the inks 1/3 through the
print, and did an ink change. The old ink (top 1/3) had a fade
problem, the new ink didn't.

That's my best theory, but I have others...

They decided to protect the print by hanging it vertical and dunking
it into a big tnk of fixative, but the tank was only deep enough to
accomodate the lower 2/3 of the print.

They displayed the print with a display that had it popping up from a
giant toaster. The top 1/3 was exposed continuously, the bottom 2/3
displayed only when someone pressed the "toast" button.

The print was stored upside down in the basement of one gallery, and
there was a flood, immersing it in, well, less than clean water up to
the height of 1/3, for long enough to effect the color change.