Does heat effect longevity of Silver Gelatin darkroom prints?

Hello all,

My garage has been repurposed as a studio and darkroom. It has an A/C vent from the house with a baffle in the ducting that closes and opens with a switch so that I'm not heating or cooling my garage for no reason when I'm not in there. Thus when Los Angeles summers roll around, it gets pretty hot in there during the periods it isn't on (most of the time).

Because it is my creative space, I'd like to add inspirational prints on the walls. This issue isn't with my own prints, I can reprint any that get damaged. However, I'm wondering if I purchase a darkroom print from a photographer (or an integral or peel apart polaroid) and wish to display it in my darkroom/studio, will the heat from those unbearable summer days eventually degrade the images? There are zero windows so sunlight isn't an issue, only heat.


Thank you,
Omid

I live in Phoenix metro area for 40 years, I've stored prints in self serve storage rooms, outdoor storage sheds and garages for extended peoids of time. Some of pritns from the 60s and early 70s were stored by my parents in Los Vegas in an outside space for maybe 20 years. So far the heat has not affected them. Saying that some of my early GAF RC black and white prints have faded, but my Kodak and Ilford prints from the same time period are doing just fine. I think it is exposure to direct sunlight that is a problem.

Heat and humidity can certainly affect mounted prints, because of how they are mounted, what they are mounted with, and what they are mounted in.

Hang up work prints

Omid_K said:

However, I'm wondering if I purchase a darkroom print from a photographer (or an integral or peel apart polaroid) and wish to display it in my darkroom/studio, will the heat from those unbearable summer days eventually degrade the images?

Click to expand...

Silver gelatin B&W prints will not be affected much by the typical heat in a space like you describe. The main worry is if the heat is combined with moisture as well. This can be a problem for the gelatin, and it can particularly become a problem if a print is framed behind glass and the gelatin layer starts to adhere to the glass. At that point it's often a lost cause.
Silver gelatin chromogenic prints (RA4) will be affected by heat. This will shorten their lifetime. However, UV light is more damaging, so you may not notice much of the degradation.
For polaroid/pack film type images, all bets are off; that stuff is as volatile as, well, very volatile things. They'll be affected by pretty much anything. If you want to hang on to those, don't hang them up for display for an extended period of time at all, and instead store in cool, dark, non-humid conditions.

Thank you all for your replies! I will definitely take those to heart.

-Omid