Re: Presentation of alt. prints

Bas van Velzen (eland@knoware.nl)
Thu, 26 Sep 1996 00:42:51 +0100

Peter Marshall wrote:

>Actually went to an event a couple of weeks ago where one of the photographers
>present was showing his work in devices of this type. It makes the viewing of
>pictures into a quite different event of course - you have to approach each
>picture, open the case look and close it. I found it tedious and precious!

At Teyler museum in Haarlem-the Netherlands, the oldest in the land, the
fine drawings used to be behind curtains. What a feast to slide away the
curtain and view the drawing, all there for you. It gives the best
protection from light influences one can get and at the same, because of
shortening the total exposure time, allows for higher light levels.
Normally 50 lux is the above limit for drawings and photos (for saltprints
I'd suggest even lower). This gives 50 lux/hour. So when the
drawing/photo/print is covered half the time the light level can safely be
doubled etc. The Teyler drawings are in almost pristine state and some of
them are as old as 400 years!!

>One way to avoid many problems is to display work in display cases rather than
>frames. I haven't tried it properly, but increasing the frame depth so that
>there is a largish gap between glass and picture seems to help - sort of
>part-way towards the display case.
>
About thee centimeters will do the trick. Tilting the frame towards the
floor a little helps to prevent reflections, also diffuse lighting helps a
great deal.

>I have looked at 'anti-reflective glass' and never found anything I'd want to
>look at my pictures through. The clearest and least coloured material I've
>ever found has been some specially clear acrylic, but the reflections from
>this were more annoying than glass as the surface always curves slightly.

Some new types are available that are invisible to the eye but they all
take away some of the reflected light coming of what is behind it. The
stuff behind it becomes darker, like a anti-reflection shield some people
put on their computer monitors.

Bas

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