Where Should I Sign My Prints

Recently a collector bought one of my photographs. They asked that it be delivered matted and mounted, ready for framing. Linen tape was used to adhere the print to the board and both mat and mount are acid free. The question now comes up; “Where should I sign the print?” 

There are many thoughts about this; front, back, lower left, upper right, name at bottom left, date at bottom right and so on and so on. Your personal preferences will always come into play, but it should be consistent, at least within print editions. 

Should I Sign On the Front or the Back

With contemporary images and galleries the work should be signed on the verso (back). The information should be either the lower left or upper right hand corner. It should include your printed name, the name of the print, the year the print was made, and the edition size. I strongly suggest a copyright be listed also. This will protect you from buyers reproducing the image without your permission. Finally, the signature should added. 

Signing on the front references a different period of photography. Although buyers and some galleries want it signed on the front, if you choose to do this my suggestion would be to print the image on a sheet with a large border and sign on the border. Do NOT sign on the image. The large border will give the buyer the opportunity to mat and frame the way they see best. There are some photographers that will sign the mat. The problem with this is, if the mat is changed, the buyer looses the signature and the information of the print. 

What Do I Use to Sign the Print

When adding the signature, I use a black Pigma Micron Pen. This archival pen is PH Neutral and will not bleed through the print. If you are signing black and white prints you can also use a number 2 pencil. 

What If the Client Wants Something Different

My client has asked for a signature visible to the viewer. So now what do I do? The work has all of the information on the verso, including name, title, year, and signature. So with some discussion we have come to the agreement that I will sign and date this print on the mat also. Knowing that the collector will be taking good care of this image, I suspect the archival mat and mount will be protecting this print a very long time to come. 

Major Hang-ups; The Easy Way to Hang Your Photos

After moving to Las Cruces, New Mexico in late 2018, I struck a deal with the Southwest Environmental Center to do several photo exhibits in their gallery area. Call for artists went out to many venues, we would jury the entries, then artists would place the accepted images into a drop box and Converge Las Cruces would print them. This gave us a way to make the presentation consistent and it avoided the problem of shipping framed art. 

The exhibits ran for six weeks and at the end of the run we would have to change over to the next show in one day. Our challenge was how to present 20-25 images with frames, mats and glass and still meet the tight deadline that was required. The process would have required either having a completely separate set of frames, or we would have had to remove all the images from the frames and then replaced them with new images. 

How I Made Hanging Exhibitions Easy

Neither scenario was appealing. So I started looking around for other methods that would be easy to hang with the ability to change out quickly. After a lot of research I found my answer from PosterHanger.com, Posteranger comes with a top and bottom aluminum bar, plastic fittings that attach to the print, and rubber stoppers that finish and stabilize the aluminum bars. The top bar comes with a pre-drilled hole and a small nail that provides a perfectly balanced frame when hung. 

I wasn’t so sure on how the poster hangers would be received. But, as many of the artists came in to see the exhibits, they often told me how much they liked the way the exhibit looked. In particular, they often commented on the simplicity of the hangers, how great the show looked and then asked; where did you get the hangers?  

What Was The Reaction to the NO-Frame Look

The images were mostly printed 18” on the long side on a 16” x 20” print. This gave me clean borders on all four sides that allowed the image to “breath.” Without the glass, the mat and the frame, everyone could, and most did closely approach the photos to examined the prints. Often someone would approach the work, look at it from a comfortable distance, then move in to look at it from 12 inches or less away. Then they would move back to their original spot, to once again, take the whole image in. This seemed to increase their appreciation of the image. Some told me the lack of traditional framing made the images feel more “real.” They not only got physically closer to prints, but it seemed the viewers were psychologically closer also. I think this was because it felt less formal and the lack of the frame and the glass barriers created a sense of intimacy with the work. 

The choice of poster hangers is not right for all work, venues or situations, but in our case it was a great solution that made beautiful exhibits.

What Photo Paper Should I Use?

When putting it down on paper, it’s gotta look good!

Back in the late 1980’s thru the early 1990’s, Kodak made a graded photographic paper called Elite Fine Art. It was a paper of triple thickness, deep blacks, bright whites and it took selenium toning like no other paper I ever used. The paper had everything going for it, except it was at least 30% more expensive than the other papers I was using in the darkroom. 

If processed correctly, which included development, stop bath, two fixing baths, hypo clearing agent, toning, then about an hour wash, Elite Fine Art created some of the most beautiful black and white photographs I ever made. What made this paper so good was not only the bright highlights, deep shadows and rich blacks, but also the feel of the paper. The triple thickness accomplished two goals, first when you held it in your hands it felt substantial and thick. Secondly, that thick substrate, according to Kodak, would enhance the archival qualities of the print. 

What to Look For In a Photo Paper

Today’s fine art inkjet papers are varied in weight, tone, surface and paper base. So what are we supposed to look for when we are making high quality photographic prints?

Different papers are made of different stuff. Resin coated papers (RC) have a wood pulp base paper sandwiched between to pieces of polyethyne with a photo emulsion on top. The emulsion is a porous receiving layer that lets ink adhere to the paper without spreading out. The RC papers have had a reputation of not being very stable. Early versions have turned a bronze color when exposed to normal viewing conditions over a long period of time. Research suggest the life of RC prints is now considerable longer, but more work needs be done before the fine art market will fully accept resin coated prints.

Most paper we use today is fiber based wood pulp. They have a high content of lignin that makes the paper darker and more rigid. To make a fine art paper, the lignin needs to be removed by chemicals or bleached to get a bright white paper. Without this expensive process light would interact with the lignin, breaking it down and your print would become darker. 

What Is the Best Paper To Use For Your Photographs

The best choice is a cotton rag, a natural fiber and low in lignin. The  alpha-cellulose in the paper creates strong paper that’s not brittle and is bright white. It holds up well over time and because it’s insoluble, moisture has very little effect on the paper.

Recently I got to see Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Baryta. It’s thick (315 grams per square meter), has a lustre finish and very slight texture. A printed image on this paper reminds of that great Kodak Elite Fine Art paper from a couple of decades ago. I think I’m going to have to give this paper a try!

I want to thank my friend Leona Strassberg Steiner of Bywater Fine Art Printing for asking a question about paper that I didn’t know the answer to. It’s because of her that we have this post. 

Other Places, Other Spaces - Where Else To Exhibit

In my previous blog entry I talked briefly about some of the venues one might explore in trying to exhibit art work. They included art and craft fairs, online sales, and galleries. 

For some there are other places where you could place work to get noticed and possibly sell some of your work. Here are just a few:

Coffee Shops/Restaurants - Coffee shops love having art hanging on their walls. This helps bring in people and they get more free advertising, the work livens up the walls and encourages a sense of community (especially if you have an opening reception). There are downsides to coffee shops and restaurants. There are not a lot of sales, they do not promote your work and you do all of the hanging. You are the one to set up the reception and you pay all the costs for the reception. Still, if you are just starting out this is not a bad choice to get noticed and to beef up your exhibition resume.

Libraries -  Many of the same conditions apply here, not many sales and you do all the work. However, there are exceptions. Having an exhibit in a college library or the the main library of a major city can add gravitas to anyones resume. In many of those places there are curators or art historians that decide on what will be shown, making it a more competitive venue. In most case they have an open call for artists and will plan a show anywhere from 6 months to a year in advance.  

Art Groups - Local arts groups are a great way to get your work in group exhibitions. They often have contacts with community and business groups that can give the space to show art. This is a terrific way to meet other artists and since the art groups often have multiple shows a year, it is a way to quickly build an exhibition record. The downsides are that it probably cost money to be part of the group, there will be entry fees for every show, and you will be showing with a diverse range of materials, quality and presentations. But when it comes down to it, it is almost always a great experience. 

My final point; none of the above should be counted out as not worthy. There are unexpected opportunities at any time you get to exhibit your work.

You just need to weigh the pros and cons and then make a decision on what is best for you. 

On Becoming An Artist

When I arrived in Las Cruces 15 months ago, I partnered with the Southwest Environmental Center to produced two photographic exhibitions of other artists works. That was the plan, to create an environment for photographers to exhibit. While producing these exhibits, I did not include any of my own work. In fact, over recent years I have not exhibited often or widely. 

But that has begun to change. Currently, I am exhibiting my work in the exhibit FIRE & ICE at the Unsettled Gallery here in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The gallery is small, but a really charming place to exhibit with its whitewashed adobe walls and wooden vigas across the ceiling. I got the opportunity to pitch an idea to have my photographs of Death Valley (FIRE) and my friend Alex Tullis’s work of Iceland (ICE) shown In the gallery. Each of us has one of the two major rooms in the gallery. Together the exhibit is a contrast in landscapes, colors, themes and styles.

I was recently pleased to hear that I have been awarded a solo exhibition in another gallery here in Las Cruces. The work is more current than the Death Valley work, and I believe a next creative step compared to the current show, FIRE & ICE.

So now I have to confront how I am going to present myself as an artist. How do I market my work, how do I find a wider audience for the work I do. There are a number of ways to go; I know many photographers that go to local fairs every week and they do O.K. I know some photographers are in galleries, but they only sell occasionally. And we have all heard of people in New York, L.A., or Santa Fe that have sold prints for thousands of dollars. I have a e-commerce web site, so with a lot of marketing online sales is a possibility. There isn’t one answer that fits all that I want to accomplish.

Since my latest series has not yet been shown, in fact not even completed, I have to make a decision on how I will proceed to present, market, and show my work. This requires a road map, a plan to get from where I am now to where I want to be a year or two down the road. 

So right now I am beginning to lean in one direction and with a little more consideration over the next few weeks, I will make the final decision and tell you why I chose that direction. 

Stay tuned!

Inkjet vs. C-Prints - Which Lasts Longer?

Having been in photography for nearly 50 years, I have been around a lot of photographic processes. These include alternate photographic processes (cyanotypes, lith prints, pinhole cameras, Van Dyke prints): not to mention the more well know processes of color and black and white negatives, digital photography and pre-press preparation.

I have always been concerned with the archival qualities photographic processes, especially in my fine art prints. Many of these qualities depend on the chemicals being used, the substrate the image is printed on and the way the images are processed. Some of the alternate processes listed above have archival qualities of hundreds of years. Traditional black and white images, when properly process can be good for 500 years or more. However, it does not include C-prints, our most common color photographic prints. C-prints are what we get from our 1 hour photo lab. The images are printed from negatives or digital files directly on a sheet of photographic paper and then processed in a chemical bath. The other print process is Inkjet (pigment prints, not dye based). These images are printed from digital files where the printer directly sprays ink on to a substrate, often a photographic type paper.  

As I prepare for exhibiting my work, I have researched which of these two directions I should consider for my prints. I came to a long suspected conclusion; pigment prints are more stable and longer lasting than chemical prints. There are some in art market that prefer the C-prints, they have a thing for the silver halide emulsion containing dyes and couplers that form a visible color image upon reaction with a color developer. The problem is that dye fades, and compared to some of the more traditional photographic processes, they fade FAST! According to Wilhelm Imaging Research, the leader in the testing of photographic print longevity, a Chromogenic print, under normal viewing circumstances will last only 30 - 40 years. 

Today’s inkjet pigment prints under normal viewing could last as long as 200 years. Many ask why is it so important to worry about the longevity of the work? They say: “I’m not going to be here in 200 years.” The reason is simple; the value of the work needs to be maintained. Anyone interested in buying an original photograph wants to protect their investment. Think of people buying a Da Vinci for millions of dollars. Would they pay anything if they knew the work was going to either fade away, or be significantly different in 40 years? Probably not. 

Other advantages of inkjet pigment printing include a wider color gamut, more paper/substrate selections, and considerably less environmental impact. 

My choice has solidly come down on the side of inkjet pigment printing for my fine art exhibitions.  

My New Photo Lab

How do I go about finding a photo lab, I’ve lost the one I had. From that lab I could often get exhibition prints within a day. Recently they consolidated their facilities in other states and now they are not able to deliver prints for 7-10 days - if I’m lucky. With several upcoming exhibitions I needed to find a reliable, high quality, affordable lab to get large archival pigment prints in a reasonable time frame.

While doing an internet search I came across Nations Photo Lab, located in Hunt Valley, Maryland. As a test, I ordered three prints. Since I am living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, I was a bit concerned about their ability to get the images printed and sent back to me quickly. 

I am happy (very happy) to report that my test went well. I uploaded three 16” x 20” inch images on Sunday afternoon and on Wednesday they began their almost 2000 mile trip across the country. I received them on Saturday afternoon in a flat, well protected box. 

Excitedly I opened the flat box and found the prints were protected against dents and dings by sandwiching them between two more layers of corrugated cardboard. Inside these layers of cardboard was a clear envelope containing the photographs. When I opened the envelope and spread the photographs out, I was floored!

They were BEAUTIFUL!

Nations Photo Lab only prints from digital files, they do not print from, or process negatives. They have a variety of sizes at reasonable cost, and as I indicated before, they have quick turnaround. 

I was so impressed by the quality, response, and price that I immediately uploaded 15 more images to print for my next exhibition in April of 2020. 

I am looking forward to getting these images back next week.

Nations Photo Lab
1130 Pepper Road
Hunt Valley , MD 21031

www.nationalphotolab.com

PH: 888-507-5755

FIRE & ICE Exhibition

Converge Las Cruces Presents FIRE & ICE

A Photographic Exhibition At The Unsettled Gallery

Converge Las Cruces presents FIRE & ICE, a photographic exhibition at The Unsettled Gallery located at 905 North Mesquite Street in Las Cruces, New Mexico, taking place January 11, 2020 through, February 29, 2020.

The exhibit is the work of two photographers; John Craig who examines the timeless landscape of Death Valley, and Alex Tullis who explores the magical landscape of Iceland. 

“The work in this exhibition has opposite connotations yet illuminate a single motif of the land around us; both artists interpreting the uninhabitable,” according to Deborah Sperry, Director of Exhibitions at Converge Las Cruces.  “Craig’s photographs of Death Valley are imbedded with eternal gyrostatic tensions with the passage of time while Tullis’s compositions of the Icelandic landscape highlight the intimacy of remoteness.”

An artists reception will be held January 11, 20120 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m at The Unsettled Gallery, located at 905 North Mesquite Street, Las Cruces, N.M.

Mr. Craig has been a professional photographer for more than forty years and has a Bachelors of Art Degree from New Jersey City University in Jersey City, New Jersey. He lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico with his wife Deborah and their two dogs, Jasper Johns and Coco.

Mr. Tullis is a professional photographer currently working for the YNAP Group. He has a Bachelors of Art Degree from New Jersey City University in Jersey City, New Jersey. His experience includes fine art, wedding, commercial and editorial photography. He lives in Blairstown, New Jersey with his wife Julia and their two young, beautiful children.

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Converge Las Cruces exhibits in partnership with The Unsettled Gallery in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We exhibit and represent artists that focus on environment, landscape, and climate change. The mission of the gallery is to converge cutting edge artworks of today’s critical issues with an up-and-coming art market.

The Unsettled Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

FIRE & ICE Artist Talk - February 22

This image, Death Valley 9210 is on view at the Unsettled Gallery located at 905 North Mesquite Street Las Cruces New Mexico at part of the Fire and Ice Exhibit.

This image was taken at Zabriski Point in Death Valley and was one of the first images I took using intentional camera movement. You can hear the story on how and why I started this form of photography by attending my artist talk on February 8, 2020 at 1:30 p.m.

Photographing From the Levee in Las Cruces, New Mexico

It was a chilly day of about 50 degrees with a breeze that made it feel colder. When you look behind me, you see the Organ Mountains to the east, and the city of Las Cruces to the west.

Finally at the end we take a look at what I captured on this day.

Thanks for watching.

One Small Step

Fifty years ago this week, American astronauts were making history by becoming the first humans to land on the moon. Sitting in a small bungalow in Lavallette, New Jersey, I watched along with my grandmother and an estimated 600 million others across the globe as Neil Armstrong floated off the ladder and became the first person to plant his feet on the moon’s surface. 

Thought to be impossible ten years earlier, a giant unified push by government, private industry and the American public made the moon landing achievable. Engineers and scientists developed new technologies and materials, solved old problems and conquered new challenges. It was America working together, America working at its best, and everything was possible.

Something has happened over the last fifty years. Science is no longer believed, technology becomes ever more dominant and our industries, politics and public struggle under the pull of distrust. 

Imagine, as a nation if we could again decide everything was possible, it would be a giant leap for mankind!

55 Years of Running

I have been running for 55 years, it all started on a bet…

The Monster In My Closet

A number of years ago, just before lunch, I was asked by a co-worker about a dream he had the night before. Since I had been reading a lot of Carl Jung (Man and His Symbols, Modern Man in Search of a Soul), he felt that maybe I could shed some light on his dream.

He dreamt he was sitting in his living room, calmly reading a newspaper while his wife and daughters were screaming and running around in a panic because the upstairs of their house was on fire. I had read where there have been cases where dreams seem to predict a physical problem before one becomes consciously aware of it. Since I don’t have a degree in psychology, nor do I even play a psychiatrist on television, I just asked my co-worker; do you feel O.K.? He looked at me  and said “Yeah.” I then left for lunch and came back an hour later.

A few minutes before I returned to my job my co-worker had rushed out of work with a fever of 102 degrees. Perhaps at some cellular level his dream seem to anticipate his house (head) fire.

It was then I realize that I might want to pay a little more attention to what some of my dreams may have been telling me. Most were run-of-the-mill anxiety, nonsense, crazy stuff. But one dream shook me to my core. I dreamt a dark, nefarious figure jumped out of my closet and ran up to my bed. I woke up in a cold sweat and it took some time for me to settle down and get back to sleep. This shadowy figure probably represented all of my fears, faults and bad personality traits, and my mind decided it was time to confront me. I don’t know if having that dream was the culmination of looking inward, or if it was an acknowledgment of my desire to willingly take on my issues, but I knew the next morning I needed to make a photographic record of my experience.

Today, when I look at The Monster in My Closet, it is almost as frighting as when I lived through it. I have never had a dream like that again, maybe because of personal growth and maturity (although many I know might question that maturity part). My belief is that if some night a similar specter were to appear, I would be up to the task of facing the darker truths that are pressing upward from my unconscious.

About the Photo:
The Monster in My Closet (1988)
Camera – Mamiya 645
Exposure – 30 seconds
Film – Kodak T-Max 400
Developer – HC-110
Paper – Kodak Elite

Death Valley – Forbidden, Unforgiving, and Timeless

Death Valley can be a forbidden and unforgiving landscape, yet the intense heat and the desert dryness makes it a place of endless photographic opportunities.

When my wife and I first drove into Death Valley we passed by Zabriskie Point. There were about two hundred people on the point overlook, all taking pretty much the same photo. That afternoon we drove all around the park, I hardly took my camera out as we drove through the different landscapes of desert, mountains and sand dunes.

The next morning we got up before dawn and drove back to Zabriskie point. We arrived before the first light and there was almost no one else present. After a few minutes some people started to arrive, then more and more, and then as the light came up from the mountains behind us, there were suddenly scores of tourists.

Again I noticed everyone was taking the same picture, and it was pretty much the same photo you can find on their Instagram and Facebook feeds within minutes of visiting the site. So I decided to do something different, something that was out of my comfort zone. I decided that while the light levels were still low, I would take my photos with a slow shutter speed while I move the camera. Most of my images in Death Valley were done that way for the three days we we visited.

The long exposures gave me an opportunity to capture the soft light and rich colors. I chose not to capture an appearance, but rather invoke the sensations of my surroundings. I did not want to freeze a particular moment, but instead explore the timeless landscape. My goal was not to seize memories, but to arrive at a wider experienced. These photographs explore the juncture between earth, sky, time, and the infinite. They challenge perceptions, while still inviting us into a forbidden and unforgiving landscape.

A New Chapter

Late last summer I began photographing “Drive-by Memories,” a series of black and white photos that included memories and perceptions from my past. I went to back the places I lived and loved and tried to collect a fleeting remembrance. I felt I needed to do this project to photographically finish this chapter in my life.

Now I am about to start a new chapter. At the beginning of October 2018, my wife and I will be moving to our new home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Located in the southern tip of Interstate 25, about 40 miles north of El Paso, Texas, Las Cruces is a city of just over 100,000 people. The Organ Mountains are only a few miles from my front door, and White Sands National Monument about an hour away. It’s hot in the summer, mild in the winter and it provides endless opportunities for photography, art and beauty.

My wife was asked by a friend, “why are you moving there?” Her one word answer was “beauty.”  And at this stage of our life we think beauty is something to behold, consider and contemplate, especially as the stubborn march of time becomes a determinant for of all life’s pursuits.