Dry mounting??

[Bob Carnie]

Rob - how long do you think silver gelatin prints will last??

And let me ask you all, if you wanted to preserve your prints for all eternity, would you dry mount them?

 

[Nathan King]

And let me ask you all, if you wanted to preserve your prints for all eternity, would you dry mount them?

I would not. I dry mount my photographs for aesthetic reasons (perfect flatness and space between image and mat). My images will last however long they last, probably disintegrating in a trash pile before time begins to take any toll on them.

 

[pschwart]

Dry mounting was a standard practice for silver gelatin, and I suspect that the majority of those who dry mount are making silver gelatin prints. You can certainly dry mount most alt prints but all the one I have seen are hinged or mounted using corners. Alt prints also tend to be on the smaller side and do may not need dry mounting. Personally, I use 4-ply rag mats with polypropylene corners for my carbon and palladium prints. My small prints lay flat with no visible cockling so I am a happy guy. If anyone prefers to dry mount, that's your business and you don't need to convince me (but I may not buy your print).
I have a mount press and use it regularly for flattening. It's also a dandy way to simulate advanced aging for some alt processes, where poor processing can show up as staining after a couple of minutes in the press.

 

[RobC]

Rob - how long do you think silver gelatin prints will last??

Potentially several hundred years if not longer. BUT only if kept in optimal environmental conditions which excludes anything but light, humidity and temperature controlled environments. i.e. If you are selling to clients who will hang them in their house then all bets are off.

Original Fox Talbot prints are still alive and not so well but they didn't understand about fixing then like they do now. So I guess its not unreasonable to say 100 to 200 years if kept in reasonably good conditions.

Given that papyrus scrolls thousands of years old and cave paintings which are even older have survived where the environmental conditions have remained constant, it figures that the potential life is very great. But a house doesn't usually have fully controlled environment and over the years people move and change position or house and your print may end up in a loft or garage sale when the original purchaser dies. So what happens to it then is anyones guess.

So again it comes down to do you really want to maximise print longevity or display quality.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, Rob, as they finish my pyramid where all my prints will lie hermetically entombed with my mummy for eternity. Hopefully, I'll manage to keep the grave robbers out for more than a decade or two, which apparently even Cheops couldn't do.
Just don't mention I used gold toner or they'll be digging into there within a week!