Digital BW, The Print

Daniel,

Interesting points.

This past weekend, while visiting my parents we pulled out their 
photo albums and began looking at images that dated back to the 
1940's. Certainly not a long time but a lifetine nonetheless.

The black and white "snapshots" that interestingly were in 2x3 format 
looked a good as the day they were shot. No discoloration and no 
apparent fading. The color images that dated to the late 50's and 
60's I presume were all faded although they still retained a special 
character. I wonder if they really faded or the early color processes 
just resulted in less saturated and vivid image colors as we are 
acustomed to today.

I printed a Piezo Quadtone image last night and compared it to one I 
printed about 2 years ago when I first got MIS Quads and has been on 
display framed and hung in my office. The original image was a bit 
warmer than todays image with the FS inks, but all in all I could see 
no other significant deteriorization.

I think that as with any process care must be taken to display 
fragile artwork in accordance within the realm of good practice. I 
recently took an archivally prepared fiber base silver print and left 
it in direct sunlight for a week. The print paper turned yellow. It 
is all a matter of degree.

You would never place a fine water color painting in direct sunlight. 
The water color pigments are very sensitive to UV and will fade 
fairly quickly.

As with anything else, time will tell.

Mike