Mounting prints on tissue or not?

[Mainecoonmaniac]

While I was in photo school in college, we were showed a couple of ways of properly mounting and matting prints. When mounting, we were taught to use mount tissue and mounting prints with photo corners. Also, we were also taught to use acid free mat board in both instances. I fell out of mounting with tissue since getting access to a heated mounting press was harder and favored using mounting corners with linen tape. I now have easier access to a mounting press and I'm thinking about mounting with tissue again. Do some galleries frown upon using dry mounted prints? I'd like to get a sense what APUGers are doing. I'm particularly interested in what gallery owners require for black and white fine art prints that are matted.

[Vaughn]

You might look through some of these threads...

http://www.apug.org/forums/search.php?searchid=45551

I dry-mounted my 16x20 silver gelatin prints due to my presentation method -- print trimmed to image area and dry-mounted in a window one inch bigger than the image area. I like how the edge of the print/image to be defined by itself, not by being over-lapped by the mat board.

Platinum prints and carbon prints I do not dry-mount, but instead hinge-tape from the top to allow the paper to hang flat behind the window. I usually show the rebate with platinum prints.

Galleries and museums like work not to be mounted -- this allows the print to be removed easily if the mat is damaged or the print needs cleaning/restoration.

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Thanks for your insight. I'm thinking of dry mounting because my 8x10 silver gelatin prints are pretty curly. But I've been doing well not dry mounting my prints if I mat them. The link to the thread seems not to work.

Best,
Don

[jeffreyg]

For many years I also dry-mounted silver prints but not pt/pd. I no longer dry-mount, seconding Vaughn's comments. If the mat board gets damaged so goes the print.

http://jeffreyglasser.com/

[Vaughn]

Sorry about the link -- it works for me. Just do a search using "mounting prints" -- that will do the same thing, in theory.

[George Collier]

I no longer dry mount either, though I have a press, which I use only for flattening. I hinge with linen tape, and cut the overmatte to reveal a bit less than a centimeter of white border, beyond the image end. I sign the back of the print and the matte.
For flattening fiber paper, see the first sticky in the Film, Paper, & Chem forum, lots of info.

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I no longer dry mount either, though I have a press, which I use only for flattening. I hinge with linen tape, and cut the overmatte to reveal a bit less than a centimeter of white border, beyond the image end. I sign the back of the print and the matte.
For flattening fiber paper, see the first sticky in the Film, Paper, & Chem forum, lots of info.

I'll look for info on flattening prints and forget about dry mounting.

[George Collier]

Check out the sticky I mentioned in the other forum. It's a long read, but full of info and lots of different experiences by many APUGers.

[RalphLambrecht]

Due to the aesthetic reason Vaughn mentioned, I continue to drymount the prints I sell. I prefer to have a flat, free-floating print and hate overlapping mats. Unsold prints are kept unmounted in an archival box until they have found a buyer. If a gallery insists in unmounted prints, they get one from the box, but nothing is as flat as a drymounted print.

I think the 'if the mounboard gets damaged' issue is overrated. I didn't have a single case in 30 years. However, I had a few cases were the glass broke and the print was damaged.

[Ian Grant]

It's a personal choice. There's no way I'd dry mount a print which I intend to keep or sell, wheter my own work or one I've bought or swapped.

Much of my exhibition work is going to a museum, and I also sell prints to collectors etc, as Vaughn says they prefer images to be unmounted.

As I have numerous exhibitioins sets -so far more prints than frames - occasionally mount boards do get damaged, or images might need to be reframe in a different size frame for an exhibition. So now way I#ll go back to dry mounting.

Ian