Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Randy Rancier"
<randy_rancier2004@...> wrote:
 
> Without a doubt the best way to keep a print flat is is by dry
mounting it to any stiff board, 
> i.e. foamcore, Rag board, gatorboard, etc....  I believe that dry
mounting to a high quality 

Foamcore crumbles with age. You're mounting on something that won't
last twenty years.

> Rag board should be considered archival if that is something you are
concerned with; it 
> was good enough for Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and the like and is
accepted by 
> Museums

People familiar with the breadth of Weston's and Adams' work know that
dry mounted prints are worth less (market price) than unmounted prints
(all photographs are worth less when dry mounted), and that they've
yellowed heavily. 

While I love those old yellowed Westons far more than anything Adams
did, mounted or unmounted, they're heavily and "unacceptably" yellowed
in modern "archival" parlance.

Museums HATE dry mounting. Ask a curator, this is not news.

They do display dry mounted prints by photographers they consider
significant, but dry mounting emphasizes "hobbiest" and "not serious"
otherwise. County fairs and "art shows" have no difficulty with dry
mounting, of course. 


>However I prefer not to drymount prints 13 x 19 and smaller because they 
> shouldn't need it as long as they are printed on some good heavy
"Fine Art" papers.
> 

This is valid for some "good heavy" papers and not for others. Some,
particularly the baryta experiments (that's where they're at) pose
major curvature challenges, particularly in changing humidity.