Vaughn
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This may not be the best place to post this but here it goes.
Ants. We moved into a new house mid-June. I stored all my print boxes in a seperate room in the garage since I do not have a studio/darkroom set up yet. So I was out there today, looking for a print to send off to Merry England as a print exchange.
I had several 20x24x4" print boxes loaded with window-mounted 16x20 silver gelatin prints stacked on one side of the room (on a counter). Upon opening them, I found thousands upon thousands of ants nesting inside each one.
These are prints I made over the last 20+ years...drymounted on 4-ply rag board with 4-ply windows. They are toast...acidic black ant shit, squashed ants, etc. I moved the boxes outside on the driveway to see what I could salvage. A few minutes later it starts to rain, so I moved the prints (out of the boxes) back into the garage...I am bummed, to say the least. I might have been able to save a majority of the prints if they were not dry-mounted.
It is hard seeing thousands of hours and so much money in the form of mat board and silver paper go up in ants. Most of the prints I can not make again as they are on paper no longer manufactured (Portriga Rapid).
Not too much longer after this, the sun burst through, and what else could I do but stand there in the rain and admire the rainbow that appeared.
Well, many of these prints I have hauled around to Friends of Photography Workshops though the 80's and other workshops to share, so many were no longer in saleable condition, but looked good enough to share with others as images.
The print boxes stored on the other side of the room were fine -- no ants. They contained some of my more recent work of the last ten to 15 years, plus a box containing prints given to me, or in exchange, from other photographers and artists.
I have unmounted copies of most of the work (I tended to make 3 good copies) -- and the ants seemed to have not messed with those boxes even though they were on the same side.
My negatives are safe, I still have my camera, and I am not even making silver gelatin prints anymore. I don't know why the photo gods are messing with me...perhaps it is a sign to just keep on keeping on with new work.
So it goes...
Vaughn
Ants. We moved into a new house mid-June. I stored all my print boxes in a seperate room in the garage since I do not have a studio/darkroom set up yet. So I was out there today, looking for a print to send off to Merry England as a print exchange.
I had several 20x24x4" print boxes loaded with window-mounted 16x20 silver gelatin prints stacked on one side of the room (on a counter). Upon opening them, I found thousands upon thousands of ants nesting inside each one.
These are prints I made over the last 20+ years...drymounted on 4-ply rag board with 4-ply windows. They are toast...acidic black ant shit, squashed ants, etc. I moved the boxes outside on the driveway to see what I could salvage. A few minutes later it starts to rain, so I moved the prints (out of the boxes) back into the garage...I am bummed, to say the least. I might have been able to save a majority of the prints if they were not dry-mounted.
It is hard seeing thousands of hours and so much money in the form of mat board and silver paper go up in ants. Most of the prints I can not make again as they are on paper no longer manufactured (Portriga Rapid).
Not too much longer after this, the sun burst through, and what else could I do but stand there in the rain and admire the rainbow that appeared.
Well, many of these prints I have hauled around to Friends of Photography Workshops though the 80's and other workshops to share, so many were no longer in saleable condition, but looked good enough to share with others as images.
The print boxes stored on the other side of the room were fine -- no ants. They contained some of my more recent work of the last ten to 15 years, plus a box containing prints given to me, or in exchange, from other photographers and artists.
I have unmounted copies of most of the work (I tended to make 3 good copies) -- and the ants seemed to have not messed with those boxes even though they were on the same side.
My negatives are safe, I still have my camera, and I am not even making silver gelatin prints anymore. I don't know why the photo gods are messing with me...perhaps it is a sign to just keep on keeping on with new work.
So it goes...
Vaughn
