What do you do with your prints?

[GrahamBy]

I asked this question in the context of the "Is good good enough" thread, which distilled down to the idea that prints are the end point of photography.

Now suppose you make one biggish print per month (13x19 / A3+). Mounted & matted, that's a minimum of 16" x 22", or 41 x 56cm. That would occupy all the reasonably hangable space in my house and my office within a year, by the end of the second year I'd be looking at sticking prints to the back of the toilet door. This despite the fact I live in an actual house, which is quite a luxury in a French city. If you live in the USA, just suppose you have a 17" printer and re-pose the question :-)

In reality, only a tiny proportion of images I consider printable get printed. Some people say they rotate prints: how does that work, you hang the print for a couple of weeks, then you put it into a storage box? Do the storage boxes come out to show occasionally, or would you be more likely to show a friend images via your monitor (or high quality TV)?

If you're a pro, you sell them, but do you keep reminders of the special ones around the house in physical form?

[amolitor]

I put prints in books. Then I give the books away.

[Jimbo57]

I make prints mainly for RPS exhibitions and competitions and for International Salons. When the best of them come back, they may get framed and hung on a wall in my home but most get binned. I have hanging space for about 40 at a time in 50x40 frames, so roating a couple of dozen per annum gives a gradually changing display.

[Trevor Murgatroyd]

I have an L-shaped corridor in my home where I have installed track spot lighting, and where I have room to hang six 20 x 16 frames. I print, frame and hang what I regard as my current best work until one of two things happen. Either I feel that I want to hang a new image more than I want to keep one that is currently hung, or I realize that one of those that is currently hung is not as deserving as I had thought it was. Therefore the images in my six frames are changing continually. I find that printing, framing and hanging an image is the best way of analyzing them, and learning what I have done well or badly.

After my hung images have been "demoted" from the wall, I reprint those I am still proud of on 11 x 14 paper and keep them in an Itoya Art Portfolio. I prefer the smaller size for what is (apart from the digital file) my permanent record of my best work.

I also prepare digital slide shows of my travel photographs as a convenience to show family and friends on a screen, but I don't take these very seriously. Sadly (for me), family and friends pay more attention to my slideshows on a tablet than they do to my framed prints or portfolios. I am starting to think the prints are both a vanity project and an anachronism.

[Rob C]

[quote author=Trevor Murgatroyd link=topic=105251.msg866320#msg866320 date=1446822924

I also prepare digital slide shows of my travel photographs as a convenience to show family and friends on a screen, but I don't take these very seriously. Sadly (for me), family and friends pay more attention to my slideshows on a tablet than they do to my framed prints or portfolios. I am starting to think the prints are both a vanity project and an anachronism.
[/quote]

I think there's a real tendency to forget just how boring "other people's" images can be. Had an uncle with a Leica who used to shoot castles and his two dogs. We dreaded his slide shows, despite the pix being crisp...

In fact, I think that putting people through a viewing of one's work is perhaps best not done unless they literally ask to see it. There's a slight difference is showing stuff to photographers, because that can make them feel either smug or chastened, both being nice, depending who's feeling what.

Anyway, everybody knows that only they themselves know what's good and what's not good.

;-)

Rob C

[RSL]

I make prints, mat 'em, frame 'em, and hang 'em on the wall. When I left my Colorado house last month I gave more than a hundred framed prints away -- several were 16 x 20s in 20 x 26 frames. A lot of 'em are hanging in my second son's law firm now, and he tells me people come through the door and go "Oh, wow!"

Very satisfying.

[aduke]

I print and mount my images on gatorboard, without mats or frames. Most are 16 x 24 or 16 x 20, with a few 16 x 48 (more or less). I hang these on the walls of my house. When there are new ones to hang, the older images are stored in a cabinet until there is some good reason to restore them to the walls.

Often, after a couple of years, my imagery and processing have improved enough that older images are either reprinted or discarded.

Alan

[GrahamBy]

We dreaded his slide shows, despite the pix being crisp...

I remember those slide nights 

The great advantage of handing someone an album, a tablet, or even the little hand-held slide viewer my mother had in 1970, is that the viewer gets to choose the speed of advance. Same as prints on the wall or pieces in a museum, the viewer skips some to concentrate more on others. Having that imposed is particularly cruel 

[HSakols]

I remember those slide nights 

Yes, I miss that time.  It brought people together. 
I put my matted prints in a map file chest that has wheeled drawers.  All my unmated prints go into black boxes.  Mostly I just print for myself.  Unfortunately 700 square foot home has little wall space, but enough for my favorite art work from other artists.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I print at A2 size and frame at 50x70 cm with a passepartout. Few images make it to the wall and even fewer to exhibitions.

Sometimes I print larger, in which case it is Durst Lambda at a photo lab. The print sizes are either 50x70 or 50x100 cm. You need quite a few images for an exhibition, even at a small site.

My prints are either hanging on the walls of my flat, standing in frames in a corner of my flat, laying in a drawer or hanging at an exhibition. Some prints are hanging in my office.

Best regards
Erik

I asked this question in the context of the "Is good good enough" thread, which distilled down to the idea that prints are the end point of photography.

Now suppose you make one biggish print per month (13x19 / A3+). Mounted & matted, that's a minimum of 16" x 22", or 41 x 56cm. That would occupy all the reasonably hangable space in my house and my office within a year, by the end of the second year I'd be looking at sticking prints to the back of the toilet door. This despite the fact I live in an actual house, which is quite a luxury in a French city. If you live in the USA, just suppose you have a 17" printer and re-pose the question :-)

In reality, only a tiny proportion of images I consider printable get printed. Some people say they rotate prints: how does that work, you hang the print for a couple of weeks, then you put it into a storage box? Do the storage boxes come out to show occasionally, or would you be more likely to show a friend images via your monitor (or high quality TV)?

If you're a pro, you sell them, but do you keep reminders of the special ones around the house in physical form?

[Rob C]

Yes, I miss that time.  It brought people together. 
I put my matted prints in a map file chest that has wheeled drawers.  All my unmated prints go into black boxes.  Mostly I just print for myself.  Unfortunately 700 square foot home has little wall space, but enough for my favorite art work from other artists.

So does an air raid warning siren.

Rob C

[Peter McLennan]

I give 'em away.  Sometimes 40X60 canvases. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my stuff on my friends' walls.

[Otto Phocus]

I am having a hard time remembering the last time I printed one of my photographs.  Did it a lot back in the film days, but since moving to digital, I don't print.  I guess it is just easier to pull the image up on a screen when I want to look at it.

I tend to have prints of other people's photographs on the wall.