Photo glue vs tape vs corners: what's best for creating albums?

[BSP]

I am looking for info on the pro's and cons of alternative ways of non-permanently "sticking" photo's in albums.

What works best, fastest, cleanest, cheapest etc......

How do you make analog photo albums in this day and age?

Thanks for chipping in!

Bill

 

[wiltw]

The thing to be VERY careful about, is choosing a (no matter what type of...) means of adhesion which will not DAMAGE your photos via chemical deterioration of the things that form the image in the print!

In the days of film, album companies such as Art Leather which catered particularly to the professionally prepared wedding album market, there were double-sided adhesive squares which could be used at each corner to afix a print to the album page.
You could also use double-sided tape from an ordinary retail outlet and run the risk of the adhesive deteriorating the image and/or yellowing and becoming visible
You could use photo corners with adhesive like ordinary postage envelopes, or photo corners with adhesives formulated for longevity of the photos being mounted
You could use Kodak Dry Mount tissue
Adhesive squares similar to what I used to get from Art Leather can be found https://www.dickblick.com/products/...nuwHHdEIyhkVq4QhriRqhuGjGWi0M7osaAhVKEALw_wcB

There used to be the existence of specialist companies that offered spectrum of archival photo preservation goods, and you can still find sources of specific products from suppliers like Archival Performance. There are specially formulate sprays for photos from a variety of companies.

 

[removed account4]

hi bill
are you making the album yourself? do you have a "blank book" with pages you want to adhere the photos to?
what works for me is 2 different things. the first one is the easiest, a company called LINCO here in the states makes
archival corners/ mounting strips. they are some sort of space age product that is ph neutral . it looks like plastic and is a strip that you fold
and it makes a corner .. ther are "legs" that you stick the page and the corner of the photograp fits in the corner you made..
the other thing is a lot of work, similar but a little different. you take an envelope and you cut off the corners ( or you take acid free rag paper and
make corners yourself ) and then you take framers tape / linen tape ( or take your acid free paper you made the corners with and make a strip and make your
own wheat or rice starch paste ) and glue your home made corners down on the blank pages.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=linco+tape&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

i've done all 3 methods and the mounting strips are easiest but cost more than just wheat paste and paper

have fun !

 

[BSP]

@wiltw & @jnantz both thanks for your tips. I am now looking a purchasing a ready made/empty album with black pages and maybe pergamine sheets between them and using the more expensive archival double sided/removable tape to adfix the photo's semi-permanently in a speedy way.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

I like the clear corners myself. Slip 4 onto the photo, place photo on the page, bang, instantly done. No damage to photo either now or potential and photo is easily removed and replaced if desired.

 

[BSP]

@Larry Cloetta, don't you find that when flipping through the album the photographs tend to fall out?

 

[removed account4]

@wiltw & @jnantz both thanks for your tips. I am now looking a purchasing a ready made/empty album with black pages and maybe pergamine sheets between them and using the more expensive archival double sided/removable tape to adfix the photo's semi-permanently in a speedy way.

i've made hand stitched books where i just wheat pasted the top edge in place ( tipped it in ). if you can take the pages of your empty album ( because it has a screw post binding ) i might suggest you remove the pages, get some wheat / rice paste ( its just flour and water if you don't want to go full scale archival ) and a brush. i'd brush on 1/4" put the page in, then put waxed paper ontop of the image/page and something heavy on top. there is a great how to book called books boxes and portfolios that can lead you down a rabbit hole in making your own photo albums fromscratch good luck !
john

 

[Larry Cloetta]

@Larry Cloetta, don't you find that when flipping through the album the photographs tend to fall out?

Sorry, just saw this.
No, with the newer clear plastic ones I have never had a photo even hint at falling out, at least up to 5x7s (haven't put anything larger than that into albums yet). Rock solid steady. The older brown or black paper ones as were common from the 1920’s on (I have many old albums from relatives) were looser fitting and tore over time, so photos commonly fell out of those. Plus the dry adhesive on those, which you had to moisten/lick to activate would often fail over time and the corner itself would fall out, followed by the photo. Some of the newer ones have alleviated all those issues, in my experience over the last few years. If you do want to remove a photo from the album, the newer corners, at least the ones I have, are close fitting enough that it’s a bit harder to get them out than it was with the older style, but that’s a good thing.
American Crafts “Sticky Thumb” “clear photo corners” are the ones I have been using, bought them at Staples, but would imagine there are other similar ones out there.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I use the waxed pages with a plastic cover which allows me to remove the photographs without damaging them.

 

[jtk]

Archivalmethods.com

 

[BSP]

Archivalmethods.com

Wow - they seem to take archiving really seriously!
Thanks for the link @jtk

Bill

 

[Sirius Glass]

Archivalmethods.com

Thank you, quite useful.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Those "magnetic pages" are very bad for photos. The glue will eat through the back then on to the emulsion. If you want photo to last a long time and removable when the photo degrades, don't use any adhesive or mount tissue. I mount my photos with plastic photo corners then I cover it with an over mat. I use an archival, acid free unbuffered board. I tend to print the same size so I could reuse my frames and mats. One of my clients is a museum that has owns a German Masters etching collection. Non of the prints are glued or mounted. That makes it easier for a conservator to fix issues. The most important part is to make your photos last is to wash your prints properly. Residual chemical will attack the photograph.

 

[BSP]

@Mainecoonmaniac : Thanks for your contribution to this subject. It is much appreciated. About the aspect of washing - do you know if there is a simple way to test is a print has been washed properly?

 

[wiltw]

Those "magnetic pages" are very bad for photos. The glue will eat through the back then on to the emulsion. If you want photo to last a long time and removable when the photo degrades, don't use any adhesive or mount tissue.

The above caution is good, but it is not always applicable to quality products!

• I have Art Leather albums which I put together as sample albums of my work, for potential clients to see during the 1990s while I was shooting weddings. The prints are afixed to the pages with adhesive squares obtained from Art Leather, and the masks do NOT always obsure the mounting positions from view...rectangular matte cutouts clearly show the entire photo. I can see NO EVIDENCE of any damage to the photo, mechanical or chemically induced in a book assembled about 28 years ago.
• I have some personal albums sourced from the local store, to keep travel photos for places around the world that had visited during the 1980s and 1990s, and these have 'adhesive' pages. I can see NO EVIDENCE of any damage to the photo, mechanical or chemically induced by the adhesive lines which run continuously across the pages...even in a book assumbled in 1981 (just under 40 years ago)

I just looked reexamined both the above albums to critically inspect for damage of any type to the prints.

 

[eli griggs]

"i might suggest you remove the pages, get some wheat / rice paste ( its just flour and water if you don't want to go full scale archival"

Do no use flour on your work, it has food value that will feed insects and microbes.

What you want is either rice flour STARCH, of better yet, whole wheat Starch.

The process of removing the starch from the flour, includes, at least traditionally, allowing the starch removed from the whole, to ferment mold that, reaches long tendrils down into the vat/bottle, which feed off any non-starch food content, every so often the mold is removed and the cycle continues, until no molds can grow into the now, purified starch.

That leaves you with as archival glue as you may want, especially with thick papers with a border area covered by a 100% rag matboard.

Back the backer board, between the photo and back side, which should be archival quality, with good, glassine acid free paper or glassine border paper and you should have as good a "archival" job as you can get.

By-the-way, serious artists use no only these materials, but acrylic mediums as glues. Unless you want a glued up piece, (two top patches), to be cut off when the work is removed for whatever reason, don't bother using the acrylic.

Actually, there is an acrylic product you could at least use on the backer boards, and be free of the glassine ,Golden Acrylics GAC 100 liquid medium, which has been heavily tested as a barrier, between wood and other discolouring material.

In test of paintings and their supports, wood boards mats, ect, over a seven year period, really significant damage to the painting surface and sub layers, cause by reactions to out gassing, occurred.

In parallel, testing, those boards, etc, that received two or more layers of Gac 100, showed no sign of deterioration, through out-gassing harmful materials.

In other words, try placing light coats of Gac 100 onto the whole side of the backing board, where it meets the photograph, and it will give some protection to your print and 100% rag mats.

I hope this is a help, and remember, using flour will attract critters that like to nibble at you work.

IMO.

 

[guangong]

I have some family pictures in albums that use a plastic sheet that adheres to page to hold phpgraphs. Some pictures have been in these albums for 50-60 years without exhibiting any change. I have my grandmother’s album that uses corner holders and that seems to work also. So many choices!