[alt-photo] Re: prints that leave our hands

[Katharine Thayer]

I enjoyed these stories too.

The best story I can think of on the topic of what happens to prints  
after they leave us:

Several years ago I got a call from a stranger who  had found and  
bought one of my gum prints in a thrift store.  He happened to be  
interested in historic photographic processes from a collector's  
perspective, was very interested in learning more about how the print  
was made, and had gone to quite a lot of trouble to find me.

I was curious how a gum print would end up in a thrift store, and  
after explaining the process to him, asked him to describe the  
print.  He said it was small and brown and was of a mother sitting in  
a chair with small children on her lap, holding a book. Thinking over  
prints I'd exhibited and shown over the years,  it didn't sound  
familiar to me. A few more details about signature and style  etc  
convinced me that it was indeed my print, but an additional detail,  
an inscription "Merry Christmas" with a year date, written on the  
back, confused me even further.  I just couldn't think what this  
would have been.

It was several days later that I realized what the print was, and who  
had probably  given it away.  I had belonged to a small, close-knit  
book club for a  number of years, six women who had really bonded and  
cared about each other.  We always had a special Christmas dinner  
every year, and one year to show my appreciation and affection for  
the  group, I made one of these small prints for each of them as a  
small Christmas gift.   One member of the group was moving to another  
state after Christmas, and one of the women, without consulting the  
rest of us, had invited a new person to take her place and had  
invited the new person to the Christmas party to get to know us.  I   
wanted the new person to feel welcome and part of the group, so I  
made her a print too, even though I didn't know her.

Well, it turned out she didn't fit well with the group, didn't get  
along with anyone but the woman who had invited her,  and in fact the  
club disbanded as a consequence of her abrasive personality.   It  
wasn't just us; she rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.  She ran  
for City Council soon after that and was trounced; I don't think she  
got 10% of the vote in a two-person race, which must have been  
especially humiliating since she had gone to the trouble of going  
door to door and meeting each of the thousands of people in the  
district.    But I heard around (you hear things around, in a fairly  
small town) that she was especially venomous about the women in the  
book club, so I'm not surprised that the print I gave her as a  
"Welcome, and merry Christmas!"  gesture ended up at a thrift store.  
But the good news is,  it found an owner who appreciated it much more  
than she did, so the story has a happy ending.

Long story, and not as interesting as Diana's, but just one of those  
small town stories.
Katharine



On Mar 5, 2010, at 1:57 PM, Keith Gerling wrote:

> Interesting stories, Diana.  Thanks for sharing!
>
> On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Diana Bloomfield  
> <dhbloomfield at bellsouth.net
>
>> wrote:
>>
>
>
>> Hi Peter,
>>
>> Well, do keep us posted on what happens when the PVA sits in the  
>> sun or in
>> the freezer.  The results will be interesting.
>>
>> I always wonder what happens to my prints when they leave my  
>> hands, too--
>> but not so much from a conservation viewpoint.  Some pinhole  
>> friends of mine
>> told me, about a year ago, that they were in an "antique" store  
>> out in NM,
>> and one of my prints was sitting up there-- all framed and  
>> matted-- for
>> sale.  Sad, but true.  I have no idea who originally bought it,  
>> and since I
>> know I didn't sell it to anyone in NM, I often wonder how it made  
>> its way
>> out there.  I hope it had a good trip.  I did ask if it had held  
>> up (it was
>> a b&w hand-tinted print, so I wondered if it was one of those I  
>> hadn't fixed
>> long enough) :)  But they said it looked great and still held up.   
>> They at
>> least liked it enough to turn it over to see who had made it.  The  
>> best part
>> was-- the store was asking a higher price for it than I know I had
>> originally put on it.  So I felt good about that.  Still, there it  
>> was--
>> sitting in some dark corner, far from its original home-- unsold.   
>> And then
>> I went to a charity auction once, and saw a photograph hanging up  
>> for sale
>> that I really liked.  I got right up on it, and realized why I was  
>> so drawn
>> to it.  It was mine.  So it seems when people decide to clean out  
>> their
>> homes, my prints are the first to go.  On the other hand, the one  
>> I saw also
>> still looked great-- no fading and no yellowing. And since I was  
>> initially
>> so drawn to it, at least I like to think I have a consistent  
>> vision. :)
>>
>>
>> On Mar 5, 2010, at 3:06 PM, Peter Blackburn wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Hi Diana:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Still, I have a few small swatches of papers coated with various  
>>> dilutions
>>> of Gamblin PVA sitting in full sun, under fluorescent bulbs, and  
>>> even in the
>>> freezer. I just want to know firsthand what might happen,  
>>> especially under
>>> adverse conditions (as imperfect and incomplete as my testing  
>>> methods may
>>> be), when a print leaves my hands into the hands of a buyer. I've  
>>> done it
>>> with my pigments and paper, so this is par for the course with me.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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