Problem Need help and ideas for mounting very large photo

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Marell

Marell

Grumbler in Training
Joined
May 17, 2009
Posts
4
Loc
Charlevoix, Michigan
A customer brought me a photo that is 54" by 74" . I am open to any suggestions as to what to mount it on and how. The largest Foam board that I have ever used is 48" x 96" ............ Thank you in advance, Marell (my first post on the grumble and hope I am doing it correctly)
 
Welcome to the Grumble.

Call around to local sign shops in your are. It can be mounted on acrylic which is available is extremely large sizes but needs to be done with a roller press.
 
Does the photo need to be mounted over-all? Does it need to float or will you piece together a window mat?

I imagine they spent lots of money on it -they may be willing to spring for an aluminum honeycomb panel from Small Corp
(http://www.smallcorp.com/).

Do be sure to have adequate space between the surface of the photograph and the glazing, which will want to be UV filtering.
 
Welcome to the Grumble .

We mount the photos that size with to Di Bond or aluminium (or similar). You will need a roller laminator to do this.
Then you have a few options - eg you could float it in the frame with a spliced mat backing and spacers under the glazing. You could use a slip frame and frame. You could laminate the front after backing it to aluminium or acrylic and float it "frameless"off the wall.
We either do this or face mount it to acrylic using the Diasec process. However I would not recommend face mounting an image this large with the laminate style of face mounting, for several reasons.

If you do use acrylic for mounting the image in any form, use an older sheet of acrylic - ask your supplier for an older sheet which has expanded.
 
You ought to discuss conservation issues with the client. Laminating presents myriad conservation problems, as does over-all mounting. Many art museums are shying away from purchasing already mounted large photographs, and doing it themselves (or having us do it) for these reasons.
 
05 said:
You ought to discuss conservation issues with the client. Laminating presents myriad conservation problems, as does over-all mounting. Many art museums are shying away from purchasing already mounted large photographs, and doing it themselves (or having us do it) for these reasons.
Click to expand...

I have to agree and say I am not a huge fan of laminating photos also (On the front). We have not had problems using laminate to mount their back to aluminium. (but we are using a flexible face mounting method so maybe that helps us).

It depends what the photo is, if it is able to be reproduced, its value, etc I suppose. I certainly would not laminate a high value photo.
But.. most clients want their photos to be very flat, especially those fuji flex images. Lots of framers are still wet mounting to MDF also!! We were recently asked to provide full conservation framing (reframed) an exhibition of large images up to 1.2 x 2.4 metres for a public museum. After removing the photos from their existing frames, we found they had all been mounted to gator board. Not exactly in keeping with the conservation framing we were about to do!

I am meeting with paper conservators from a couple of major art galleries next week and we are discussing the conservation issues related to mounting digital images for their collections. Will be interesting to get their feedback.
It can depend on the combination of location, paper type, image processing, mounting material etc also. It is not always straight forward. I would be keen to get your thoughts 05.
 
05 said:
I imagine they spent lots of money on it -they may be willing to spring for an aluminum honeycomb panel from Small Corp
(http://www.smallcorp.com/).
Click to expand...

This was interesting. I have not seen this before. Not sure it is available in Australia. It seems to serve a similar function to Di Bond except it has the alum core in between the two alum skins. How would you adhere a photo to this?
 
Miranda, here is a resource in the US and Canada but you should be able to find some international distributors. Page 52 of the catalog if it doesn't take you straight to it. It shows aluminum with polyflute and can be one sided or two. 4x8 2 sided runs a little over $100.

http://proveer.com/components/catalog/default.aspx?pageid=12&lang=1

You should be able to contact Alcan for someone in your neck of the world for distributors.

http://www.3acomposites.com/

Funny thing is when I worked for a conservator 30 years ago we used aluminum and other conservators called him a Charlatan for using it. Those wishing to have million dollar plus paintings restored sought the shop out from all over the world because he was a scientist before becoming a conservator. I remember having to construct many of the panels since there was not a large market for these specialized products.
 
Jeff Rodier said:
Miranda, here is a resource in the US and Canada but you should be able to find some international distributors. Page .
Click to expand...

Thanks Jeff. I can get Aluminium Composite (and aluminium) here, just not aware of the aluminium honeycomb product.

Loved the catalogue though - will have a look through it , never know what I may find in it.
 
Diasec

Hi, was doing a site search for some understanding of folks thoughts on the Diasec system.

I have a client who recently saw photography framed with this system, and they are very excited about it, wanting me to learn to do it!

She told me that it is a conservation grade product. Naturally alarm bells then rang when she went on to tell me that the photograph was glued with a gel to acrylic glazing. It sure doesn't sound reversible. From what I have read so far in The Grumble, it sounds like a nightmare to set up shop to do this sort of work. I would really like to hear that it is not accepted as conservation grade framing (which would be enough to put my client off wanting to use it). *crosses fingers*
 
My 2 cents:

Don't practice on customers art.

You won't make enough money on this job to cover the risk. One eyelash under the photo and you're toast!

Get out of the loop by recommending that your customer take it to a sign shop or graphics house and have it roller mounted.

Then you'll be glad to frame it for them.

You can't be all things to all people.
 
Thanks for your input Greg :thumbsup:, my 'framers instinct' tell me you are dead right. I am none so keen to discover a new arena full of issues.

~Jeff, I did notice it was an old thread, but since there was mention of the diasec system in here, it seems a logical place to place my question. :)
 
{Jeff, I did notice it was an old thread, but since there was mention of the diasec system in here, it seems a logical place to place my question.}


I am one of the Diasec license holders. Our work ends up in major art galleries around the world. The Australian National Gallery purchased one from one of our artist clients this week.
is it a conservation process? - well it is not reversible so you could say no. but Diasec mounted images that were done in 1971 (the year it started on a commercial level) are still going well (40+ years is not too shabby!). Diasec mounted images are selling for Millions of dollars.

As others have commented, it is a specialist area of mounting. You need to practice face mounting of any kind over and over before you even think of trying to do a customer's job. A clean space, an eye for detail and lots of confidence are required.
 
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