Re: archivalness of gum
I absolutely REFUSE to comment in response to some asshole "curator" who decides gum can't do fine detai.... oh that's a different one, I meant to say isn't archival... And Diana... you had a print buyer who insisted on inkjet pigment prints... which I found fascinating. Did you get any idea why? (Whichever, congratulations on the sale !) Do you suppose even from the most archival printer they're more archival than gum? And just what is it about gum that's supposed to be non archival -- as if it matters. I myself think that folks who assume there's going to be a civilisation on this old globe in 200 years that's capable of caring whether a print in some flooded, bombed, or otherwise relic "museum" has faded from its presumed pristine state... hasn't got enough in their head to stuff a strudel. Of course archivality is also a factor of the storage, the frame, the paper, and so forth... but good grief, that's the kind of preciosity gives me a pain in the brain... This from the culture that lionizes graffiti done with spray paints on crumbling masonry... cherishes singed posters and fragmented documents, but frets that a gum print may not be perfectly archival... (to NO evidence, in fact against all evidence, if it matters). Why? That's a no brainer -- because they know diddle about photography and double diddle about its history and triple diddle about why it could even be art. That is, they have no idea about photography being actual art. But they can understand in their little pea brains about "archival" --- they've probably never SEEN a gum print older than 30 years... but they feel free to sound off... I suppose I should apologize for being, um, so outspoken -- but that "curator" should apologize: This argument about archivality is an insult to photography. Some of the most important prints and drawings not to mention paintings in the Western canon (not to mention tribal art) are melting, yellowing, crumbling, etc. before our eyes... And when the Italians, Greeks and Egyptians demand the Getty give their broken & cracked sculptures back, they don't worry about archival.. Why? Because they KNOW that's art. (Sublime, in fact.) But they don't know that photography... even a platinum print (though the total platinum would sell for more on e-bay then their own chemical constituents) is judged by its archivality. Tell them to, um, and go look at some old prints, like the yellowed and fading Rembrandts of holy awe. PS. Diana -- you mentioned that you printed your "collection" on Hahnemuhl -- which one? I've done a lot of gums on Hahnemuhl & find it one of the best, but would love to try one that will also print in a printer, in case I haven't. And also, by the way, gum over platinum is an historic process -- if memory serves (which I can't promise, MEMORY is NOT archival) Paul Anderson (heh heh) did it, but also I think Heinrich Kuhn, among others. I believe it was fairly well known... Then again there were many kinds of "platinum" including a commercial "platinum paper" -- who was the Englishman who swore he'd stop photographing when that paper was discontinued? He had the same name as a photo historian or other pioneer, but ... as noted, this memory is not archival. meanwhile, best to all... non-archival Judy Hey Chris-- Isn't platinum the most archival process? At least, that's what I always tell people. I'm sure I read that somewhere. I did have someone ask me an interesting question recently that I never thought to ask anybody-- but I had made a gum over platinum print, and this person suggested that by using gum over the platinum, I was harming the platinum in some way-- or, at least, somehow removing the archival nature of the platinum, since-- this person said-- gum isn't archival. I think this person was only *assuming* that gum isn't archival-- really didn't know for sure-- but I thought it was an interesting question.
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