How do you display your prints?

[ray_g]

I usually do 8x10 b&w prints, and frame them. I have been getting increasingly annoyed at accumulating frames of all sorts on the same wall, and am wondering how most of you choose to display your prints.

Do you mount / mat / frame / sleeve and bind / etc?

Do you buy multiples of the same frame in reserve?

Do you do your own matting? Any particularly good and easy web resource to learn this?

 

[back alley]

i use simple black frames from ikea, sometimes matted.
i prefer that the frames be the same and simple so they do not distract from the print. plus i dislike ornate frames.

joe

 

[back alley]

very simple...some examples.

the last 2 are from an idea i stole from a store display.
a bar on 2 brackets and the framed prints hung on the bar with rings and small hood screwed into the frames.

the original art was hung on the bar with rings and clamps.

 

[Dracotype]

When I took a high school course in black and white photography they had me mat my own prints for the last two projects. I learned several things.

Most art stores sell mat in a color usually called "photo gray". It works very well for matted prints in my opinion. You could use a white mat/frame, but I don't like the emphasis this gives to the photo.

Matting photos is very difficult if you do not have one piece of equipment, a mounting press. This is the heat press that melts the matting paper to the photo and the matboard. I used an iron and got sketchy results, damaged photos, and partially sticking photos and boards.

Cutting the boards was a whole nother problem. I used a craft knife, you know the heavy duty toolbox kind, and I ruined more than a few boards.

But I will say this, I was quite proud of my results, and the ones that looked nice, looked quite nice and improved the photo.

All this is to say, matting makes your photos look very nice, but is a pain if you have no previous experience, and use other than standard equipment. If you really want to mat your photos on a consistant basis, invest in a photo heat press, and if you want, a good matboard cutter, not a craft knife.