A new product for mounting photos?

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I remember over 20 years ago seeing Richard Avedon's show American West. He had huge prints mounted on aluminum sheets. I wonder if this is useful for photographs. Could this be used for dry mounting? Keep in mind that this product is not solid aluminum, but has a 1/8" polyethlene core.

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/aluma...35522560&_bta_c=47a42f46gk376mtgjb0h8w7j6bwok

 

[DREW WILEY]

Dibond and similar brands of alum panel have been around for awhile. Very smooth but expensive, and really best suited to high-tack permanent
acrylic adhesives, which require special equipment and skills, rather than drymounting.

 

[bernard_L]

Filmolux in France can supply Dibond and Forex, with the adhesive film in place, and cut to your dimensions. Cheaper than having Dibond finishing by the photo print supplier. Caveat: the smallest dust speck will show as a bump with glossy paper.
https://www.filmolux.com.fr/Nos-Pro...pports-adhesifs-et-non-adhesifs-pour-collage/
Product name : Dilite Adhésivé
Can't find a similar product on the filmolux.de site, only two-sided adhesive foil. But maybe it's there? Make sure to consult and buy the one for manual use, unless you happen to have a laminating machine
https://www.filmolux-shop.de/de/Unsere-Artikel/Kategorie/15/Aufziehfolien-permanent-klebend

 

[Bob Carnie]

Diabond is a product I have been using for quite awhile, mainly for colour photographs ie Flex prints, very smooth , very rigid , and adaptable to be combined with Plexi on the face of the print then mt to diabond then cleate the back to hang from the wall. the image sits off
the wall and has a nice contemporary feel. Some face mount prints to plexi and then mount this to the Diabond for hanging applications, I think Peter LIk would be a good example of someone using this method and doing it really well.

Diabond can also be used for hot mount silver gelatin print using a product called Flo Bond and is very tricky to do but has a nice look when done right.

These days I stay with classic mount and museum rag matts with simple frames, and put all my money into AR glass. This seems to be the direction my company is going with our framing needs. To date I have only bought one line of white matt board
and it allows me to keep it simple.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Thanks Bob for your input. It sounds like aluminum sheets are not for the little guy. I haven't dry mounted for years because a press is too expensive. To keep things simple, I mount on rag board with photo corners and I cut my own mats. The rental darkroom I use to rent to mount my photos went out of business and I'm not going to buy a mounting press just to mount an occasional photo.

 

[DREW WILEY]

If you think a mounting press is expensive, fooling around cold mounting over Dibond would give you a heart attack! Coincidentally, today I was hosting the huge touring Festool demonstration truck, itself a wonder of ingenuity. But these are the folks that have the real-deal panel-cutting and
fabrication gear (but not mounting equipment). Have that system myself, as well as selling it here. Last time I stumbled into a Lik gallery the samples
were big backlit transparencies. Bob already knows what I think of that, so I won't irritate him more.

 

[gone]

I saw that Avadon show at SFMOMA. Very large prints, B&W, half length portraits mostly if I remember correctly. Some may have been head and shoulder shots. Loved it. It really stuck in my mind. Seems I saw it sometime in the 80's. The works were free standing like advertising posters and just set out on the floor w/ stands, not mounted on the wall when I saw them.

The prices are reasonable. A 16x20 panel is less than $20. Not sure what the shipping would be, but if you enlarged the same size papers all the time, then you could buy a bunch at once and mitigate that part of it. I'm not crazy about the 1/8" thickness and would prefer at least 1/4", but that is probably why the price is low. Neat idea.

Aluminum will oxidize over time, so the idea would be to do this w/ no border like dry mount, or slap polyurethane on any exposed areas. I'd love to see some colour oxidized panels (red?) that you could buy larger than the paper and have a distinctive border on some pics. Not sure of the archival quality of that oxidation process though.

 

[calebarchie]

Not new, usually printed directly on surface for signage.

 

[Bob Carnie]

I buy aluminum 20gage in large sheets and the metal shop cuts to size, lately I have been using 11 x14 and 16 x20 not cheap but I buy if for registration purposes.

This image is on aluminum and what I like is its very rigid and actually could hang by itself or on a easel and look quite nice. Palladium Base Image with Thaylo Blue pigment in gum over top, I used a low end negative to print the blue hoping the highlights would be blocked allowing the warm Palladium to shine through.
For Silver printers who are use to toning , specifically exotic toning , this method of working is very compelling and liberating for ones vision.

All my Alt work is on aluminum as I do duo tones for most of it, I am not sure if I would start mounting Silver Prints on aluminum
I have considered this ( to mount the silver paper in safe light, quite easy proposition actually , then make the silver print as normal, and try
alternative print methods over-top, I think the hard part would be making the registration negatives to fit, an idea that maybe Drew could put his thinking cap on and explain how I would do this... exact registration now Drew , not close enough for govt work.
This would allow for the incredible Dmax and Contrast of Silver with the extended range of pigmented gum for effect.

Today I am going to put old screwed up alt prints that are mounted on aluminum into really hot water to see if I can strip the prints back off the aluminum and reuse.
If it works I will be a very happy camper

 

[calebarchie]

You can get dry mounting sheets that detatch with reheating in press.

As for mounting on alu, do you mean for sizing? If so just use rc silver prints and you do not have to worry about it.

 

[Bob Carnie]

You can get dry mounting sheets that detatch with reheating in press.

As for mounting on alu, do you mean for sizing? If so just use rc silver prints and you do not have to worry about it.

No for registration issues, btw I just tried soaking the wasted aluminum mts in hot water and the bad prints come off, this will create a huge $$ saving
for me.

 

[calebarchie]

No for registration issues, btw I just tried soaking the wasted aluminum mts in hot water and the bad prints come off, this will create a huge $$ saving
for me.

Of course it will, you could scrape it off even. Does soaking do any damage to the prints?

Could just use something like this in future
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/178326-REG/Dry_Lam_E0810_2_Colortac_Dry_Mounting_Tissue.html

 

[Bob Carnie]

I have found that hot tissue will not handle repeated soakings, I have a hot press but I use agressive optical cold application adhesive so the prints do not separate with up to four periods of time in water.

palladium- blue coat, magenta coat, yellow coat.

I will give this stuff a try though if it works it would be great.

I am only taking off bad prints , I leave all finished on the aluminum.

Of course it will, you could scrape it off even. Does soaking do any damage to the prints?

Could just use something like this in future
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/178326-REG/Dry_Lam_E0810_2_Colortac_Dry_Mounting_Tissue.html

 

[calebarchie]

No harm in trying, cheap enough too! I think it is the same kind of stuff David used. Keen to hear your results.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I'd suggest buying the panels with pre-installed adhesive. Just be sure they are reasonably fresh. Once acrylic adhesive gets too old, it becomes very
uncooperative. Otherwise, its similar to laying down Formica. You have to start with a leading edge and only slowly bring down the rest or all hell will
break loose. No forgiveness. A less risky option for relatively small prints (up to 16x20) if to use 3M PMA (positionable mounting adhesive). This lets
you tentatively position and hold your work in place, then afterwards make the bond permanent using a formica roller or bondo knife. It's not strong
enough for big prints, and works best if you have an overmat holding down the perimeter and corners out of sight, where the bond is weakest. A good
option to aluminum is pre-adhesived Ultraboard, an extremely smooth fomeboard available from Oregon Laminations in various pre-cut sizes.

 

[Zelph]

One thing to watch for is the different rate of expansion and contraction between the prints and the metal mount. Some materials will not take it. Paper prints should be OK. Stainless Steel also works, depending on the type of prints one makes.