which frame for a gallery

[fdi]

There are no official rules for framing, only general guidelines. For a very long time there was no such thing as color photography, and even after the invention of color photography you would seldom have anything other than black and white on display in a gallery. For black and white photography a thin black or silver frame with a large white mat was considered the only way to go. The idea being that the frame should not distract from the image – just set it off from the wall. Although deviation from this theme is much more common now especially with color, keeping the frame simple and consistent is very useful in keeping the frames from distracting from an image theme, or photographer style, with the added benefit of helping to keep cost down. Larger mat borders also help give the image more of a “gallery” look as apposed to a household snapshot look and help to set the image off on gallery walls which tend to be much larger than the average household wall.

In addition to going with what you feel comfortable with as others have suggested, I would encourage you to get input from the gallery and or the person promoting the display as they may have insight into what the audience may be looking for or expecting.

Cheers,
Mark

[RalphLambrecht]

I have been asked to provide 5 images for a gallery complete framed etc...

My question is, is there a good general purpose frame to use?
In museums i see often a blank wood frame.
I'm new here, so tips are welcome.

Willie Jan

I agree with most said already, but since you are in Europe, check out:

http://halbe-rahmen.de/

They are well represented in galleries and museums. I use them for exhibitions, but I use Nielsen for print sales.

http://www.nielsen-bainbridge.com/

[Willie Jan]

I had contact with a local framing company and I found out that making a 40x50 frame handmade was 1 euro more expensive than buying a ready made one from an art shop. So this will give me some extra possibilities. I'm not stuck with the ready made set.

Regards and thanks,

Willie Jan.